Holder of Power
by Ugly Kitten
Summary: Siri Capri is just your average loner. Or is she? Can Heero find a way to save her and her friends before it's too late? This is my first angst and it is R for a reason. It is now COMPLETED.
1. Default Chapter

Well, well, Jeminie Yuy has done it again! But in a totally new way. This one was kinda inspired by _Save the Last Dance, __The Substitute, __Yu Yu Hahuksho, and my own warped imagination! Oh, and my school has opened an Anime club, thanks to really cool  sophomore. We're doing a Manga Compilation! _

And my first original story, _Angelwing, has made it to publication! I am also the Treasurer of said Anime Club, so I will be a little busy. But as I've already completely written this story._

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, Save the Last Dance, Yu Yu Hakusho, or The Substitute. Shin is a cameo for Kaioshin from Dragonball Z, a request from Toraneko. Neither do I own Siri, Telex, Tari, Toraneko, or Raine, as they are all my friends, not made-up characters. Also, the names have been changed or altered to protect the people, hence the asterisks (*) beside the first appearance of the name.

Other than that, welcome to my second fan fiction of all time, Holder of Power!

_Holder of Power_

Chapter 1: Siri Capri; Average Loner

You know those things that just get way out of hand way too fast? This is one of those things. Hi. My name is Siri Capri and I go to Northeast High School. I always thought it was your average, big-city, mainly-black school. You know, you had the metal detectors first way in, about a thousand kids per class, you had boom boxes in every classroom, the usual.

We also had our fair share of gangs. The Dragons are our main one, I never really thought much of them, though. They were just the type you avoided at all costs, which I was pretty good at. I had a much better time with the teachers than I did most of the kids.

My homeroom and history teacher, Releena Peacecraft, was once considered the Queen of the World. I mean, wow, what tops that, you know? But the war was finally over and we could get back to studying the usual way. That didn't mean things got better at NEHS. No, they got worse, like most post-war schools did.

I really never thought much about my school, really. Just that I had to avoid certain people and try my best in all the classes. No big, right?

How about if I told you that was wrong?

"Miss Capri, are you paying attention?" Ms. Peacecraft tapped her ruler on my desk sharply, only once. It was all I needed, though. I turned my attention back to full throttle. I had been doodling on my notes again, as well as turning my silver pendant over in my hands. Smacking myself in the head, I apologized and returned my rapt attention to her lecture, trying to ignore the girl and boy making out in the back row and the personal CD players playing rather loudly about the room. 

Ms. Peacecraft really didn't try to make people pay attention unless they asked her to. I'd told her at the beginning of the year that if she caught me off task to remind me, ever so gently, that I was here to learn.   
Boy, I'd be doing that this year.

"So, what's been up with you lately?" Hawatari, Tari* for short, asked as we exited the room on the way to Computer. She had dusty blond hair that extended just a bit below her shoulders, highlighted with platinum blond and darker brown streaks. Her blue eyes were what really captured me, though. She looked so innocent, like me. But, as we had both learned slowly as we got to know each other, things went a lot further than that angel-like exterior.

"Nothing," I shook my head with a huge, fake smile. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I was lying again. I know it's dumb to lie like that, but I didn't like burdening people with my problems, especially without hard facts. And that smile...nobody in this school has seen me smile with the exception of six people. 

The first, of course, was Tari. The second was Raine*, another good friend who I'll introduce in a bit. The third was Telex*, another. The fourth and fifth had been my two favorite teachers; Ms. Peacecraft and Mr. Shin*. The final person was Toraneko*, a great friend of ours.

Tari gave me a sideways glance as we walked, but said nothing more on the subject. She knew when I was lying by now, but also knew when I didn't want to talk about it.

We reached class and sat down. I brought out my things, trying to find out what was wrong with poor Tari. She wasn't talking as much, and that was a sign that she was worried. She passed me a piece of paper (she was in front of me). It read as thus:

_Siri-_

_It happened. The dream. Just like you said it would._

I sighed and looked at her. She stared straight back, her blue eyes truthful. I pulled a pen from my pocket and wrote back.

_You may be a psychic, Tari, I'm not sure. I'm no expert, after all._

Giving it back to her, I recalled her telling me about the dream, only a few days before.

**FLASH**

"Siri, I had a really weird dream last night," Tari stated, biting her lower lip as she looked over her shoulder. Probably making sure no one was listening. 

"Really? What about?"

"Jim*."

Uh-oh. Jim was Tari's boyfriend. 

"What happened?" I waited with baited breath for her to continue, my pendant going over and over in my hands.

"I was sitting on the couch at home, you know, just chilling," she started slowly. "Then everything spun around and around and around, like a kid gone nuts with finger paints. I started getting dizzy, then....it just...stopped. All of the sudden. And I was caught in this sort of, what do you call it, a cross between reality and the dream world."  
"A time vortex," I supplied.

"Yeah, whatever," she waved it off. "Anyway, Jim appeared in front of me and said he loved me. But right after he did it, he said he wasn't sure if it was going to work out. Then there was this dark, dark blank and suddenly we're sitting under a tree."  
"What kind?" I asked, curious. I think I knew where this was going.

"I think it was a cherry tree," she shrugged. "It had pink blossoms, anyways, we were sitting there and then he said he was moving away. He said he was going away and he might never come back."  
"Then what?" I asked, holding my breath.

"Another black blank and then....I saw him. We were a few years older, but it was weird. He was wearing a military uniform and he said that he wanted to marry me. I hugged him really tight...and then I heard a bang."  
I gulped. "What happened?"

"Don't know," she sighed. "I woke up."

"Maybe you're a psychic and you can predict stuff," I tried. "But don't forget. You make your own destiny. Maybe it'll happen and he'll come back and you guys'll get married."

"I hope so..." Tari smiled dreamily at the thought.

**FLASH**

_We were under the cherry tree. He said he was going to join the military academy and that he'd come back for me if he could. He said he wasn't sure. Especially with how unstable the peace is right now._

I grimaced as I read it. That was what I was worried about. See, all my life, I'd had repeating dreams that came true after a while. But, since I knew about them, I could sometimes alter them to a better ending. Like the time my dog fell over the pier. In the dream, he'd died from drowning. In real life, I'd saved him by his leash and collar. He was a little winded, but otherwise fine.

I could sit here and reminisce my dreams and their actual occurrences all day long, but that's not a good idea because none of us have time. 

But that's what I'm worried about, that and the bruises that I covered with heavy make-up. The peace is unstable, as are the dreams I've been having. Some of them have this strange boy in spandex teaching three-year-olds how to pilot those Gundam thingies (even though they've been destroyed, is the rumor) and others have this strange man with long, long blond hair shooting at demons and still more have Ms. Peacecraft dead in my arms. It was a strange mixture that sometimes intertwined with the others, making it even harder to interpret.

"All right, class, that's enough," said the teacher, Mr. Fawkes*, as he entered the room. "Put away everything you'll not be using during class and get out a pen and some paper." I did as he said, but wrote Tari a quick note back.

_Don't worry about it. Choose your own destiny._

She threw a smile back as class began. I smiled too as I pulled my blue hood around my head to cover myself more.

***

"Fawkes _really needs to get a life," Tari iterated as we headed to our next class, English. Mr. Shin was our teacher, and Raine and Telex and Toraneko were in this class with us. I laughed, but it was fake and forced. Tari knew it, but what was the point in telling me not to laugh unless it was for real if I did it anyway?_

"Hey, Tari, Siri!" called a voice. 

"Raine, hey!" I yelled, waving maniacally as she joined us. The girl raced up to us, her mid-back-length blond hair bouncing lightly in the wind. Her blue eyes glittered brightly, with a mischievous gleam that was hard to resist.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Raine asked, smiling.

"Not much, headed for class, you?" Tari answered for the both of us.

"Same here."   
"Hey!"

"Hey!"

We turned and greeted the final additions to our small group, Telex and Toraneko. They smiled and dashed to our side. Telex, with her straight, darker dusty-blond hair that flew up around her in grace as she ran. Toraneko, whose dark brown hair was also very graceful, shared Telex's steps almost equally. Blue and brown eyes glittered jovially as they stopped at the closing of the circle of our group.

"Hey, Telex, hey, Toraneko," I smiled, my emerald eyes closing happily. It was one of my genuine smiles. All of my friends were together in one place, all healthy, all happy, for the most part, and all safe. That was one of the few things that truly gave me pleasure.

"Hey, it's my favorite girls!" Mr. Shin greeted us as we came through the door. Toraneko blushed at his words. The dark-blue-eyed man (more like boy, he was only twenty) had been her crush since she first entered the school as a freshman. His white mohawk gave him a very delicate look, not in age, but I knew from watching him ward off fights that he was quite formidable.

"Good morning, Mr. Shin, how is your day so far?" I asked pleasantly. It had become a custom since the first day of our junior year to greet our English teacher with proper English.

"Quite good, actually," he grinned. "Hasn't been a fight all morning."  
"Wow, all morning?" Telex gaped. "That's like a new record for this school, isn't it?"  
"If it lasts all day, yes," he answered with a chuckle. "Get on to your seats, the bell's about to ring."  
"All right."  
We sat down in our normal five seats in the front row, where the five of us could talk all we wanted as long as we did not disrupt Mr. Shin's teachings. Right. As though we'd really disrupt the classroom with Toraneko over there. She may not have been the best candidate for a straight "A" perfect student, but she certainly was going to give it her all when it came to her crush's class. 

"All right, class," Mr. Shin began as the bell rang. You could see that Toraneko was sitting up straight in her seat, at rapt attention, hanging on his every word. "Today, we will begin our study of the classic book, _A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne. Has anyone ever read the book before?"_

A few rose their hands. Among them were myself and Tari.

"Okay, good. Who can tell me what great thing Verne did for the world of writing?" Instantly, only one hand rose. It was mine. "Okay, Siri, what did he do?"

"He invented, with a little help, fiction based on science," I answered meticulously. "What we know today to be science fiction."  
"Great, great, Siri, have you studied this book before?" he asked me.

"No, sir," I shook my head quickly. "I read it on my own. First as a _Wishbone book, then the real deal."_

"Well, even better," Mr. Shin nodded. "What other interesting facts do you know about Verne and his works?" Growing nervous, I clutched my silver pendant.  
"Well...I know his first actual book was called _Five Weeks in a Balloon, and most of his works have been translated from French into one hundred four different languages, and he also was an inspiration to several dozen different true scientific discoveries, though I'm not sure what some of them are." _

"Very nice, Siri, very nice," Mr. Shin nodded, smiling.

***

"Wow, Siri, I didn't know you knew all that stuff!" Telex gawked as we finally pulled out of Mr. Shin's room, each carrying a battered copy of _A Journey to the Center of the Earth._

"What?" I asked at their intriguing looks. "It's all inside the _Wishbone book, guys!"_

"You still like_ Wishbone?" asked a voice. We stopped short and turned about to be confronted by Frank Ichinoku. Or, basically, the leader of the Dragons._

"Yeah, what's it to you?" I growled, clearly not happy. He'd never bothered me before, why start now?

"Nothing much," he shrugged. "Hey, I was wondering, would you girls like to go out sometime this weekend? Go to the docks, the club, a movie, dinner, what do you say?" He flashed a winning smile that looked like it could have been plastered in every darned magazine that ever walked the face of the earth. But I knew better than to trust that stupid grin.

"Sorry, we're booked," Tari smiled sweetly. "And mostly taken." 

"Oh, come on, girls," he threw his arms over Telex's right shoulder and my left shoulder, his leather jacket pressing tightly against the back of my neck. I inwardly seethed, but did not attempt to remove him. He was much too strong for any of us, even all together, to handle.

"Just one night." 

"No, thanks," Toraneko said, grabbing my arm. Tari got the picture and grabbed Telex's and we waved to him quickly.   
"Sorry," Raine explained. "We've gotta get to Chem. Important and all, you know." We raced off, all four headed toward the Chem class, even though Toraneko, Telex, and I all had Drawing after English. This was going to be a long week, I could tell.

~~~

Releena quickly packed up, glad that the school day was finally over. She had been looking forward to going home all day. Heero Yuy, her love, had promised that he would come see her today. There were no major Preventers jobs going on, so he actually had time for once.

As she locked her door, she almost ran straight into the school principal, Kyle Rem. His long red hair fleetingly reminded her of a falcon, but she quickly brushed that thought from her mind. Rem had once been an honorable soldier, among the Earth Unified Nation's top twenty at the end of the war. 

"Kyle, hi," she stated with baited breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you-"

"Releena, calm down," Rem chuckled lightly as she finally settled down. "It's all right, it was an accident. Go on home, it's not safe to be here after hours for very long."   
"Yes, sir," Releena sighed and walked past him. 

As Releena Peacecraft left, Rem watched her go. A small smile played across his dark face as he watched her proceed out the door. He pulled a small black device from his pocket and spoke.

"Get 'er."

~~~

Heero Yuy frowned as he waited. Releena wasn't often late, but when she was, he worried. She may be annoying, but he did care enough to make sure she was left alive. Running a hand through his umber-brown hair, he glanced at the Felix clock on the wall with deep blue eyes. It was 1830 hours. Where was she?

A sound outside made him aware of a commotion below. He rushed to the window. Although the scene below startled him, he did not shout out, instead, he calmly yet urgently leaped from the two-story-high window and landed with great care behind Releena.

"Whoa, did you see that, man?" cried out the American Indian Heero now faced. There was just him and a black-haired Italian, but anyone could see that they had been clearly shocked by the sudden appearance of Heero.

"Yeah, he just jumped out the freaking window!" the Italian yelled. "Let's get outta here!"

"We did our part," the Indian agreed as they rushed in the opposite direction. Heero did not go after them, but was more worried about the dusty-blond girl behind him who had been struck several times across the face and limbs.

Heero turned back to the onlookers. Spotting one elder woman with a cell phone, he turned to her very calmly.

"Call an ambulance."

Perfect Soldier in all situations, all battles, and always speak briefly and to-the-point. Heero Yuy, Perfect Soldier, mercenary, cop, and bodyguard. Too bad he wasn't very good at guarding Releena.

~~~

I would like to have it known that I have a very strict honor code that I follow in everything I do. Curse words greater than hell do not exit my mouth, nor be written in typing or on paper. There, I said it. Yes, the names of the people have been changed to protect them.

Why does Siri have bruises? Why does she wear her hood up all the time? Who were these mysterious men who attacked Releena? Why did they attack her? What's with the silver pendant around Siri's neck? Why did Siri never have any friends before she met Tari? These and other questions will be answered in later chapters. Ja matte ne!


	2. True Intentions

This is my latest creation, and my best hope. I apologize for not getting the chapters out, things have been rather hectic in little old Kansas. But to be quite frank, this chapter took a lot out of me to write. Not for the faint of heart.

Chapter 2: True Intentions

~~~

I had gone to the library with the girls, where we did our homework and then talked. Sometimes it was about Toraneko's adorable crush on Mr. Shin, others on Fawkes' extreme need of recreation. I walked slowly toward the place that should have been a haven from the "cruelties" of school life, twisting my pendant in my hands.

But it was not.

Once home, time seems to stop for me. Either that, or it goes very, very slowly. Here's why; the moment I got in the door, I was grabbed and thrown roughly against the wall.  
"Oof!" I cried out as my back hit and I heard the sickening sound of my bones resisting and stretching its neighbor.

"Where've y'been, g'rl?" snarled my obviously-drunk father. A one-two punch to my stomach made me hurt worse than before. "Ah miss muh toy."

Well, I certainly didn't miss him. I wished just once he wouldn't say that, say that he loved me as his daughter, not his "toy". Wish I had a dad who cared enough to ask me how my grades were, who my friends were, whether I had enemies or not.

Guess wishing doesn't count.

"I'm sorry I'm late, daddy," I said, my voice honeysuckle-sweet. It was the only way to keep him happy. Keep daddy happy, keep too much from showing later.

"Sorry?!" he slurred again. "Why you li'l brat!" He swung his great fist at me, but I ducked quickly. Taking hold of my chocolate locks, he threw me against the wall, pinning me there. I knew I was in for it if he didn't pass out soon.

"Da-"  
I never finished the statement. A fist landed on my left cheek, once, twice, thrice, four times. Luckily, my jaw and cheek bones remained intact. The other fish punched my right shoulder, sending me sprawling to the ground. 

He pounced like a lioness (AN-Yes, lioness. The lions don't hunt.) on it's prize, and finally, blessedly, passed out from exhaustion and drunkenness. 

Why did I do this to myself?

~~~  
Heero was only just about to leave when the doctor came rushing after him, stating that Releena was requesting his presence in the hospital room. Dr. Peters had said it was an urgent matter. The umber-brown-haired Perfect Soldier only mentally rolled his navy eyes as he headed back toward the room. She probably just wanted to annoy him more.

He entered the room all the same. _Stupid pride_, he thought. _Stupid Wufei for teaching me it._ Most normal men in his position would say, "Yeah, what is it?". But Heero Yuy only stood there in stoic silence, his own way of saying he wasn't happy to be here. Actually, he wasn't normally happy to be anywhere, but that was beside the point.

"Heero," Releena croaked out. Her lips were swollen from being hit in the face too many times, and the majority of her body was in a cast. "Call Matt Deons. I need him to substitute for me. In the phone book in my briefcase. Give him the papers in it, too." 

"Hn," Heero grunted and bent only to retrieve the case. 

"Thank you, Heero."

Heero paused only momentarily in the hospital doorway. He was tempted to say something, but what? What were the polite words of respect and honor that he had forgotten under his trials as the pilot of Wing Zero? What were the words buried beneath statistics and strategies, weapons and tactics? Oh, yes.

"You're welcome."

With that, he left.

***

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Yuy, but I can't sub for Ms. Peacecraft," stated Matt Deon on the other line. "My schedule has already been filled for the next month. I hope she gets better soon."  
"Right. Good-bye," Heero hung up upon the older man's cheery farewell and another wish for Releena's well-being. What was he going to do now? Glancing back at Releena's room, he knew that he could not simply leave her. It went against his honor.

But what could he do?

An idea crept into the Perfect Soldier's mind, born of many years' training in creative problem solving (AN-Yeah, right. Shoot anything that moves, more like it!) and of desperation. Picking up the phone once again, he dialed the one number that reached his four closest companions. He was greeted by a very loud, very obnoxious, and very high-pitched voice, belonging to a certain braided idiot.

"Heero! What's up, are you coming home, is Releena all right, how's it going at her school, what was it called-"  
"MAXWELL! Shut up!" shouted a voice that sounded very much so like Wufei. Heero was certain it was him, for the next moment, the phone dropped on the other end. The umber-haired Perfect Soldier waited patiently for one of his comrades, more-than-likely Quatre or Trowa, to pick up the phone once again.

"Quatre's trying to break them up," came Trowa's voice over the phone. "What is going on?"

"I need some teaching degrees, preferably some good ones. I will be substituting for Releena."  
"Releena? What happened?"

***

~~~

Waking the next morning was a painful process. The punches to my stomach had been pretty bad, and I was certain he had cracked one of my ribs. My face ached also, and I noticed that one of my arms was bleeding as well. Where had that come from?

My lips released a small groan as I rolled off the bed and dressed. Baggy blue shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and a cerulean jacket with a deep hood. I ran a brush through my chin-length brown hair and shrugged on my pack.   
As I pulled the hood over my head, I grimaced as I could still see the black bruises. Make-up! Time to head to school.

***

"Siri, why is it that every time I see you, you've got blue on somewhere?" Tari asked as I pulled up to meet her in the hallway. Under the weight of my pack, I couldn't shrug properly, so I shook my head gently. She let out a long, forced sigh, then grinned brightly. 

"Let's just get to Ms. Peacecraft's class, I want to talk to her about what Ichinoku said yesterday," I replied as a change of subject. "And about our current subject. I just don't get why she is so set on making us memorize the names of the Gundams and their pilots. She used to despise them, remember?"

She nodded. "I wonder what changed her mind."

"Maybe she met one," I gasped at the thought. "Remember yesterday, she was rambling on and on about how it was like to almost have been killed so many times."  
"I doubt it," Tari stated hesitantly. "She just doesn't seem the type to be set on one person like that."  
I dropped my shoulders and stared at her. "You kidding me, Tari? She may love everyone, but she's got her heart out for one person, just like the rest of us do."

"I know, I know, destiny and all."

We giggled together before heading into the room. And stopped short.

Did God miscount his angels and send one to Earth? I mean, who on planet Earth could look like one so well? But if there is one thing my father's taught me, it's this; looks don't mean a thing. Before anyone could see what I was thinking, I replaced my bitter scowl with a brilliant smile.

"Good morning, ladies," stated the man in a sure monotone. He looked toward Tari, then to me, then gestured toward the seats. Uncomfortable was the understatement of the century for me. I toyed with my pendant as he spoke again. "Sit down. Class will begin momentarily." Where was his emotion? Never had I seen anyone who could feel so little like that. He had gone from angel to soulless in an instant. His eyes were a blank, as though his very soul had forsaken him. No, upon further inspection of him, this could never be one of God's angels, save perhaps a fallen one trying to save face.

Yet every movement he made seemed to send me over the edge in anticipation. As though I were waiting for him to just write his name on the board, or turn about as his dark hair swung opposite his face. He turned his back to the class, his white dress shirt barely concealing built muscles, as were his black slacks. The shiny black boots he wore seemed to reflect his navy blue eyes; soulless but bright.

When he turned about again, I saw what he'd done. On the extremely clean blackboard was written thus; Mr. Joshua Harding. So that was his name. Harding. Just thinking about the name soothed me, as though just seeing his face could send me into a dreamful abyss of wonder and beauty. But wait. Hadn't he sent me over the edge?

"Confusing, isn't it?" Tari whispered to me from her desk. I was scared she'd seen into my eyes and seen the way I was thinking, but she dashed that thought with her next words. "One day Ms. Peacecraft is here, next we have this guy. He can't be any older than her, right?"

"Seventeen, to be exact," answered the man, now found to be a boy, coolly. "Ms. Peacecraft had an accident and will not be in school for the next three months."

"Why? What happened?" Tari asked, immediately worried. My fidgeting increased yet again. What kind of accident could lead to Ms. Peacecraft not being in school for three whole months?

"I am not certain of the details. I do know that someone who has connections within this school sent two men to beat her. Had someone not intervened, they would have successfully killed her," the boy answered her crisply. But the entire thing was spoken with such a lack of emotion that I could not tell that he wasn't a pre-warned media reporter of some sort.

"So, how should we address you?" I asked, keeping my status as the happiest-go-luckiest girl in the school.

"Mr. Harding will suffice."  
Mr. Harding it was. But my true question was a little more personal, something I would ask only if I could ever get the poor guy alone. Why had he spoken with us in the first place? He did not seem the talkative type. Why had he even agreed to be a teacher if he disliked talking? Why was he teaching history, when he himself was so young?

How wrong I was.

The bell rang and the "usual" began in the class when we had a sub. Absolute chaos enforced itself onto the crowd of teenaged, oversexed group of heathens. Mr. Harding stood at the head of the class with a roll sheet and Tari and I glanced at each other knowingly. How was the guy the same age as the rest of us ever going to manage keeping this crowd?

"Hn," Harding grunted aloud as he looked over the list. He seemed to mutter something, which seemed to be something in Japanese or Chinese or something along those lines. It sounded suspiciously like Omake no Kiyone, which I knew to mean End of "Kiyone", in literal terms. I hoped there was no one named Kiyone in that class.

Then the umber-haired boy pulled out a black device and held it over his head. It looked like something I had a sneaking suspicion he shouldn't have in school. He pressed a red button on the device and a loud bang ensued.

The class fell silent.

Harding blew the top of the tape recorder as though he were blowing smoke off the top of a gun. 

"Now that I have your undivided attention, allow me to introduce myself," he began. "I am Joshua Harding of the Harvard University class of after colony 190. I will be your instructor for the next three months, minimum. I do not tolerate tardiness or late papers, nor do I accept excuses for thus. Are there any questions before I continue?"

A hand rose.

"What happened to Ms. Peacecraft?"

"An accident which has temporarily put her out of the game," he answered stiffly. "Any other questions?"

If there had been a cricket to chirp, they would have been the only ones singing a happy tune that day. Yet again, you could find me fiddling with my pendant.

"Good. I have thoroughly studied the curriculum Re-Ms. Peacecraft has been teaching you. She has given me her entire grading scale and I have approved of it. Therefore, we will continue as planned. However, there will be several minor changes in here."  
"Such as?" crowed a voice from the back.

"A seating chart."

The room fell into a deadly taboo of silence.

"What the hell's up with that?!" yelled an angry voice. Glancing back under my hood, I saw it to be Frank Ichinoku. Again.

"Nothing is 'up' with it," Harding intoned. "You will abide by my rules or you will hit the road. Is that understood?"

Silence again.

"Sit where I instruct to you. Aurora. Capri. Cutley. Daniels. Hamn. Ichinoku..." and on down the line. I ended up in the same seat. Tari, whose last name was Indigo, ended up right next to me. We were happy with the setup, as was Frank, because he was still in the back. 

The classroom wasn't that large; precisely thirty chairs, with six columns and five periods (going off the Periodic Table theoretically). Only two chairs remained empty, making this a class of twenty-eight. I admired Harding's method; it was justified, and he could know who we were easier.

"I expect you to stay in those seats each day," Harding continued as he named off the last name, Zendo. "If not, you will be counted absent. And I have as of yet to forget my own setup."

He turned his back to the class for a moment, then returned with a teacher's edition textbook. I brought out my own student textbook and a notebook, prepared to take notes on a lecture or a lesson at any time.

"We will see what your knowledge is so far," he stated again. I could tell that this much talking was not what he normally did. "Daniels, what is the name of the pilot who flew Heavyarms?"

"Wufei Chang?" Scooter Daniels said, not at all correct.

"Incorrect. Capri, what is the Gundam Chang flew?"

"Shenlong," I answered instantaneously. "But rumor has it that he himself called it Nataku."

"Good. Jennings, pilot of Heavyarms?"

"Trowa Barton."

"Good. Yasha, Deathsythe."  
"Maxwell."  
"First name?"

"Uh....Doug?"

"Wrong. Miller?"  
"Duo Maxwell."

This went on for quite some time before all five pilots and their Gundams were matched accordingly. Quatre Raberba Winner flew Sandrock and Heero Yuy flew Wing Zero, which had been installed with a very powerful system that imputed statistics and battle tactics directly into Yuy's mind. It was said only he could withstand such a power.

I pitied the real Heero Yuy and wondered what he was really like. Was he happy-go-lucky, like me because of my situation? Was he just trying to get by, neither content nor brooding? Was he a brooder, a philosopher who fought only because he wanted to? Or was he completely stripped of all feeling?

The last statement truly sickened me. But, in all matter of fact, it fully described Harding, though I knew it was impossible it could have been him. The true Heero Yuy was probably well into his forties when he even began training. Why, if it were even possible, Harding would have to have been at least seven if he'd begun training like that.

Nonsense, though. It would have been utter madness to teach a child to shoot a gun and to kill people in cold blood like that. Pure and utter insanity of any scientist or colonel to do such a thing. 

But then take Ms. Peacecraft into consideration. She was sixteen when she was appointed Queen of the World. Such a childish dream it was, but she had accepted only because she had thought it was the right thing to do at the time.

Funny how war can warp one's sense of right and wrong. Like it had my dad.

"Peacecraft has taught you well," Harding spoke again, breaking into my thoughts. The bell rang and I stood to gather my things. "Indigo, Capri, I want to speak with you two after class."

Tari and I waited until the others had all filed out of the classroom before approaching Harding's desk. He stacked a bunch of papers together, then turned to regard us.

"You wanted to see us, Mr. Harding?" Tari asked, much braver than I was. I couldn't help but stare into his soulless blue orbs, nor could I help watching his every move from beneath my deeply-hooded shirt. 

"Yes," Harding answered. "It has been brought to my attention that the two of you know Peacecraft personally, not just on a teaching level." He sounded so sure of himself now. His face was an impenetrable mask, and he seemed to be positively unable to express feelings.

"Yeah, we know her," I said, speaking more bravely than I felt. "Have you even talked with her?"

"I cannot reveal to the school my true intentions."  
"True intentions?" I repeated, dumbstruck. What'd he mean by that? And, furthermore, why was he telling the two of us?

"Stop by Peacecraft's house after school," he spoke. "And be very careful not to be followed by anyone. This is the address." He handed me a slip of paper. "Be prepared for anything."  
Confusing as it was, we accepted the late pass to Computer and left.

~~~

Heero watched as the two young girls left, only a year, two at most, younger than himself. After explaining to Releena the plan the night before, he felt obligated to let her five most trusted students in on the "secret". Now he would only have to wait for the three other girls. Why did it have to be girls?

That one girl, though, Siri Capri. Her name struck out at him, for what reason, he did not know. She wore that hood up at all times, concealing everything except her sparkling green eyes. She had really pretty eyes, he decided. Like emeralds, almost.

He wished he could have seen her face. Like many before him, the hood baffled his mind. Why would a girl wish to cover her face? It was not like many people. Perhaps she was merely shy and did not like people looking at her. 

Confusing as she was, he had to get to work on the next two classes, the ones that were after his planning period, second hour. He wished the day were over already.

~~~

Tari, Toraneko, Telex, Raine, and I met after school, as usual, but headed in a different direction that day. Nervous as I was, you could once again find me messing around with my silver pendant. The others were probably so used to me doing it that they'd forgotten to ever ask about it. I was glad for it, too.

"Where are we going?" Raine asked. "I have somewhere I need to be at seven."

"Me at six," put in Telex.

"Five," Toraneko spoke quietly. "Wonder if there is a correlation?"

"Well, we need to get to Ms. Peacecraft's," I said, shaking my head as it spun from too much information. "Mr. Harding asked us there after school."  
"WHAT?!" shouted the other three in perfect unison. "He said the same to me!" We all exchanged looks. 

"It appears we have all been asked to the same place at different times," Raine said slowly, pointing out the obvious for the benefit of the rest of us.

"We can always surprise him and show up all at once," giggled Toraneko.  
"I agree. Let's go," Tari spoke. "I'm curious as to what he wants us there for."

"Me too." I nodded grimly. What had he asked us to Ms. Peacecraft's house for? Why all of us, without the others' knowledge? One thing was obvious; I did not like the way things were looking. Not one bit.

~~~  
"You did what?!" was what Heero had expected from Releena when he arrived at her home and explained to her his doings at school. She had actually taken it better than he'd thought. She merely nodded and smiled (though how he knew, he couldn't tell).

"Who did you ask here first?" she managed to say.

"Siri Capri. Hawatari Indigo. Toraneko Sawaguchi. Raine Waltz. Telex Vega."

"How on Earth did you know they were friends? That they could help?" Releena asked. She was getting better at talking, but it was still that hoarse, not-quite-whisper voice.

"I didn't."

"Then why?"

"They seemed the most trustworthy."

Releena would have drew back in surprise if not for her body cast. "Since when were you such a good judge of character?"

"Hn."

Releena sighed. She knew she wouldn't get any more out of him on the subject. A buzz from the doorbell made her jump. Heero made his way toward it, unperturbed. When did that boy _ever_ get nervous or jumpy or anything? Did he even have emotions? Releena knew he had some, but knew also that it was buried beneath so many statistics.

~~~

The five of us reached the front stoop of Releena's huge house and had to take a step back to re-gather our bearings. Jeez, former Queen of the World sure had a big place. But it _was _rather small for her former position.

Rather small as in a small mansion. Three stories tall, it took up half the city block. Feather-blue siding and white trim, it was all a person could want in a home. She must get lonely in there, though. She wasn't married.

Raine was the first to gather her courage and press the white button on the speaker-doorbell. A faint buzzing noise let me know it was working. She stepped back and we waited patiently for someone to answer.

"Who is it?" came Harding's cold, emotionless voice. Why did my fidgeting suddenly increase when I heard it?

"It's us, Mr. Harding," Tari spoke up. "All five of us."

Harding seemed to pause a moment. "Come inside."

The gate flew open robotically and we walked cautiously up the steps of the stoop and stopped at the front door. It too opened, but was opened by Harding himself. He grunted lightly and gestured toward the living room, where I could see the dusty blonde of Ms. Peacecraft's hair, encased almost entirely inside a white body cast.

"Ms. Peacecraft!" I cried out on instinct. No one attempted to stop me as I raced ahead and knelt to her eyelevel. "Ms. Peacecraft, what happened? Are you okay?"

"Calm down, Siri," she chuckled lightly, but it did not sound like her. The voice I heard was so low and gravelly, I was almost certain someone was impersonating her. But I knew it to be her. No one else could talk to me like that. Not even my friends. "I'm all right, really. I see you've met my, quote, unquote, 'substitute'." I drew back in confusion. What did she mean by "quote, unquote"? She laughed again. "You're smart, Siri. You'll find out soon enough. Heero, explain, please, my throat is killing me."

"Heero?" I questioned, against bewildered. "I thought his name was Joshua Harding?"

Ms. Peacecraft laughed again.

"Go on and explain, Heero, or do I have to call up Duo to do it?"

"Hn," Heero grunted. "I'm not Joshua Harding."  
"Well, yeah, we sorta figured that one out, Sherlock," Tari stated sarcastically. "Heero" simply gave Tari a glare that would have killed if looks could. I learned much later on that this was my first glimpse of Heero's infamous "death glares".  
"Hush, girls, Heero isn't a patient person," Ms. Peacecraft said calmly.

Heero remained silent.  
"Start at the beginning, Heero," Ms. Peacecraft suggested quietly. "When I was attacked."  
"Hn," this grunt language was really beginning to bug me, "Releena was being attacked by an American Indian man and an Italian. My comrades should have their data soon. We have reason to believe that the school is being used to traffic drugs and weapons, possibly to begin another war."  
"Another one?" Toraneko gaped. "But they just finished up with the last one! Why would they want to start another?!"

"Same reason any soldier wants to," Telex shrugged. "It's in their blood, in their system, they can't shake the need to kill or be killed. The urban jungle and the family life just ain't for them."

I admired her knowledge on such and wondered where she had gotten such information. 

"The _War Between Worlds_," Ms. Peacecraft smiled. I couldn't tell how I knew she was, I just...knew.

"Who are your suspects?" Raine asked, all business.

"No one at the moment. Anyone in that school could be the culprit," Heero shrugged.

"Okay, then," Tari stated with utmost confidence. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Heero repeated coolly.  
"Heero..." Ms. Peacecraft warned him.

Heero rolled his eyes only enough that I saw him. The others would have been shocked he'd do such a thing when a woman who seemed to love him said something like that. I wasn't. I could tell he didn't like Ms. Peacecraft, not the way she liked him. But I could see why she looked at him like that.

"I am Heero Yuy, former pilot of Wing Zero."

***

Ooh...this story keeps getting better! But does Releena really have as much hold over Heero as she thinks? And what's up with Heero telling the girls to come to Releena's house? Why did those men attack her?


	3. Ican'treallygiveanynamesforchaptersIgott...

OK, I'm finishing uploading this. The whole thing. I've gotta be quick, bros got an assignment to do....

~~~

Kyle Rem watched as the loads of crack were loaded onto the small boat, accepting his suitcase back. It had been empty, but now it was full. Full of thick wads of hundred-dollar bills, that is. He took a quick inventory before shutting the case again.  
"Pleasure doing business," Rem stated smoothly to the Italian. "Although I do wish to make a point; you now have two assignments. Peacecraft no doubt told her substitute about the assault on her life. Kill her. Then kill the sub."

"It is done no sooner than sunset tomorrow," stated the Indian meticulously. "I will not fail again, Milord."

"Good. I trust no ill will to come from this meeting or any other," Rem did an about face on the Indian and Italian and walked toward his Mustang without any more comments. The Indian and Italian were gone before anyone could see them.

Or so they thought.

"Got it," Trowa Barton stated as he hopped out of the oak tree he'd used to hide in. The walkie-talkie clipped to his waist gave a bit of static before another voice came over it.

"Good. Return to base. Over." As soon as "over" was out of Wufei's lips, Trowa heard a screech and knew that Duo had instigated yet another fight with the Chinese boy. In the absence of other people, he shook his head, smirking ever so much. Even the silent soldier could smile more than the Perfect Soldier.

~~~

If I had been any other person, I would have screamed along with my friends. Somehow or another, though, I had known, somewhere inside me, that Joshua Harding was no Harvard grad, nor was he a teacher, in all matter of speaking. I hadn't known how I'd known. Just that I knew. What did surprise me was the fact that he was a mere small child when he began his training. That scared me most of all.

A crash from the basement made me jump. The fact that my friends were screaming "WHAT?!" at the exact same time made me leap four feet in the air. And I stayed there for a good five minutes while the crashes continued to ensue, until I saw two boys suddenly race up the stairs, one being chased by the other with what seemed to be a katana.

Despite that fact, I calmed down. Which, if I had been a normal person, should have alarmed me even more. A step between them threw what was left of my own sanity out the living room window.

"Onna! Injustice, get out of the way!" yelled the katana-wielding boy. In the seconds that I saw him, in my face and on target, seemingly the braided boy cowering behind me, I was able to gather five facts about him. One, he was cute. Two, he had black hair. Three, he had a pale face. Four, he had black eyes. Five, he was one really, really angry Chinese boy.

"One, I am not giving an injustice, however you may see it," I stated calmly, as though we were having a nice, polite conversation about the difference in the weather last week. "Two, I am not a woman, I am a girl. Three, I don't care who you are, you do not threaten others' lives through any means. It may upset what little peace we have left on this planet." 

I had almost broken out into rage. I had almost cursed, something in my honor system that would have immensely hurt my pride. I had almost wavered and allowed the Chinese boy to kill the cowering boy behind me, who I knew only two things about; one was the fact that he was scared. Second, his hair rivaled mine in thickness and in color.

"Hn. Leave him be for now," Heero stated calmly.

"What, you're taking the baka onna's side?" the Chinese boy sounded surprised, but feigned bravado. Apparently, Heero knew this boy better than that.

"Hey, who are you to call my friend a baka onna!?" Raine shouted, gathering more courage than she seemed to have. "She just said she is a girl, not a woman, _and_ Siri is far from being an idiot or a fool!"

With more bravado and strength then I knew I'd had, I snatched the katana from the Chinese boy's hands and turned his own weapon upon him. Held at his jugular, he had no choice but to obey me.

"Leave the kid alone," I growled. The only thing he could see of my face were my eyes, but they spoke loud and clear, I was pretty sure. He backed off and sulked at a corner of the room.

"Thank you!" the braided boy shouted and threw his arms around my neck tightly. I stiffened under his hold. Oh, how I hated being touched. More than anything in the world, I hated to have another lay their hands upon me. I had been hurt too much to see what beauty there could come of such a simple touch.

"Let go," I stated, in a clear and concise voice. He immediately dropped his arms to his sides but watched me curiously, probably wondering why on Earth I still had my hood up in the heated living room of Ms. Peacecraft's home.

"Are these the five you were speaking of, Ms. Releena?" asked a platinum-blond boy as he, too, came up calmly from below.

She tried to nod, but I noticed she couldn't.

"Yes," she finally stated.

"I'm sorry for my comrade's rudeness, ladies," the blond said, smiling. "I'm Quatre Raeberba Winner, and this is Wufei Chang, Duo Maxwell, and I'm pretty certain you've already met Heero."  
"We have," Tari said, scowling. Not that these boys weren't cute, but her Jim was better. Probably had a much better attitude, too. The brown-haired Duo Maxwell looked like Siri, almost; happy-go-lucky, chocolate-brown hair, and a great attitude about everything.

"I'm sorry myself," I said, smiling gently. "I probably should not have broken up that small fight without knowing the full parameters of the fight itself. But, if I may, I will introduce myself. I am Siri Capri, and these are my friends, Hawatari Indigo, Toraneko Sawaguchi, Raine Waltz, and Telex Vega."

"A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure," Quatre smiled.

"Yes, yes, now that the 'greetings and salutations' are over, can we please find out why we are here?" Telex asked, finally getting fed up with technicalities.

"I second her motion!" Toraneko stuck her hand up. 

"We third it!" Tari and Raine and I all said in unison. (AN-Can anyone say "sweat drop"?)

"Barton should be getting back soon," Wufei stated. "I had just gotten his confirmation when Maxwell decided to mess up the computer."  
"It was an accident, I swear!" Duo cried.

"Yes, I have to agree with Maxwell this time," Wufei grumbled. "Stupid braid of his pulled out several of the cords. Barton will have to fix it."

"We need it now," Heero did not whine, nor make fun of Duo. He simply stated the facts. I wondered if it was some side effect of being raised as a soldier from the start. 

"I can fix it," Toraneko offered. "I'm good with computers."  
"You?" disbelief was written all over Wufei's face.

"Don't look so surprised," Tari waved it off.

"Yeah, Toraneko's been able to take apart motherboards since she was three!" Raine added.

Blank stares. Oh, this was funny. Real funny. Guess who was toying around with her silver pendant again?

"Are you guys on Mars or something?" Telex asked, only half-joking.

"Of course not," Wufei grumbled. "Baka onna. You can't be on two planets at once. Impossible and preposterous."

"What she meant was, are you guys' brains functioning properly?" Tari said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, when was their last CAT scan, Ms. Peacecraft?" Raine asked her. "Yuy definitely needs one. Look at him, he hasn't smiled all day as far as I know."  
"Yeah, smiling is as important as breathing is," I added, grinning away.

Blank stares.

"Jeez, tough crowd," I muttered.

"Don't worry, Siri, they're always like that," Ms. Peacecraft smirked through her body cast. "And while you're here, you can call me Releena."  
"Y-You're sure?" Raine asked. 

"Of course, Raine."  
"Okay, Releena," I paused for effect. "What exactly did Heero ask us here for? Not for a tea party or nothin', I know that for sure."  
"Are you all right, Siri?" Releena asked carefully. "You don't usually drop the 'g' on an '-ing'."  
"Just crazy Dragons messing with us," Tari said. "Frank's been kinda pushing her around. Asking for dates and stuff."

"Oh, my...you should talk to Mr. Rem about that, Siri," Releena told me gently. "He may help you."  
"Unfortunately not," stated a brown-haired boy as he entered the room from the front door.

"Trowa, what happened?" Quatre asked.

"I followed the main suspect, Frank Ichinoku, to the docks. Kyle Rem followed. It seems to me that Rem was behind the whole thing. He asked the Indian and Italian to destroy not only Releena, but Heero too."  
"T-That's no-not possible..." Toraneko was suddenly at a lost for words. We all had fallen silent. Mr. Rem was a very trustworthy person. However...Heero had seemed the same way before we knew him. But he was there to uncover the plot of drugs.

"Information on the Indian and Italian?" Trowa asked, sitting down on the couch. The five of us, along with the other four boys, also took seats.  
"We found things, all right. Loads," Duo suddenly looked very, very tired.

"The Indian's name is Deer Waterweed. He has been convicted of several crimes, including rape and murder. He is a four-time offender. If he does one more of any of his previous crimes, he is to be immediately sentenced to the Death Penalty," Quatre informed us carefully.

"And the Italian?" Telex asked, watching Releena and Heero worriedly.

"His name is Michelangelo Ravioli, but most people call him "Vince". He has been proven guilty in only three cases, all of unintentional murders and one rape case, but he's been called into so many not-guilty cases the state stopped counting them. He spends half his time in the court and half outside, getting into more trouble."

"You mean Vince Ravioli Caprice?" I asked, swallowing hard. My pendant was going to be worn away by my fingers' touch by the time this meeting was through.  
"I don't know who you mean," Quatre said slowly. "Perhaps. His identity has been changed many times to protect him."  
"From what?" I asked, getting angry. "If you ask me, he should be in bars for the first two murders and the rape! Same goes for the other guy!"

"We all believe that way, Siri," Tari said calmly. "But, unfortunately, if we locked up every person who ever committed murder and rape, we'd be half out of our population. Most people in it _have_ killed before just because they are ex-soldiers."

The boys remained silent.

"Like the Gundam Pilots, for example?" Toraneko asked darkly.

Oops.

"Toraneko..." Releena said gently. "I've been trying to get it through to the entire class, dear. The Gundam Pilots were the whole reason that the war ended."

"But Ms. Peace-Releena. Why do you stand on their side?"  
"Because we have no side," Quatre stated quietly.

Toraneko's eyes widened. "Oh, no, I'm soooo sorry, I completely for-"  
"You forgot, TN," Tari said calmly, trying to help. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, dear."

"Yeah, Toraneko," Telex grinned. "Forget it!" Raine remained silent.

"Why are we here?" I asked. "It's not like we can help much."  
Wufei muttered something under his breath, but I was pretty sure it was something smart.

"Siri, listen," Releena said. "The school is being used to transport drugs. The boys want you to try and come up with a list of suspects."  
"What?!" Telex shouted. "There are five thousand kids in that school, minimum! How are we going to find these people and _then_ find out if they're in on the drug plot?"

"You don't do the latter," Quatre replied. "You find people you think are suspicious, and report back to us."

"Okay," Tari nodded. "Sounds easy enough, right, guys?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Toraneko sighed. I don't think she was completely won over on the Gundam issue yet.

"Hey, where'd that Trowa guy disappear to?" Raine asked.  
"He's fixing the computer," Duo grinned. "He's like that. Pops in and out, completely unnoticed."  
"Unlike you," Wufei muttered, hardly concealing his amusement.

"What?!"

"You heard me, baka!"  
"Baka! Why you-AH!"  
Wufei had, once again, pulled his katana on the braided boy. I couldn't stop him if I tried, for they were off like a shot elsewhere in the house.

"Is that an hourly occurrence?" Tari asked, fully serious.

We all laughed anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

***

It was six o'clock. If I didn't hurry, my father would be angry. Not that he wasn't all the time anyway. I had completely lost track of time.

"Oh..." I murmured to myself as I packed up my books to head home. Releena had insisted that we stay and do our homework in her house, where she could watch us work. She had said she was impressed by our teamwork. Trowa had even let Toraneko look at his computer. She was still yapping avidly about it, how incredible it was to look through.

"Siri, why are you in such a hurry to get home?" Raine asked. "You aren't usually, not at this time."  
"Yeah, but my house is on the other side of the library, and if I don't get home in half an hour, my father is going to murder me..." I stated firmly, stuffing my Algebra II book into the pack. He would _literally_ murder me. "And it'll take me longer than that if I walk my usual pace, so I'll have to run the majority of the time to make it home."

"Why don't you just ask for a ride?" Tari asked. If I'd looked up, the others would have seen an intense look of shock and fear. Ask for a ride? That was just about like asking for a steak knife instead of a shotgun as the murder weapon.

"Can't."  
"Why not?"

"He'll get mad. I know my father." Boy, did I know him.

"Heero, why don't you give them a ride?" Releena asked him, a little presumptuously, if you asked me.

"Hn."

"That's all right, Releena, I live around here," Raine said, smiling at the encased teacher.

"Me too," said Tari.

"Me three," said Toraneko and Telex.  
"It's all right, I can run."

"Nonsense," Releena stated as though it were obvious. "Drive her home, at least, Heero." He nodded, pushing himself off the wall on which he'd been leaning. I slung the heavy pack onto my back and tentatively followed. He'd drive me home..._alone_! Wait, why was I so worried about the stoic Perfect Soldier driving me home? He _was_ a soldier, an honor-bound one at that. My poor pendant was getting its exercise for the year.

But there were some strange soldiers that I knew of. Like that one, Treize. He was a strange one. My father had hired him to do "passionate" work; something I was only too familiar with when my father _didn't_ pass out after only a few minutes into the door.

Who on Earth would guess that my _father_ had been the one to restart the war with Treize? The one to fuel all of Treize's desires and dreams and ambitions? 

Stupid of people to believe he did it all on his own. But the most stupid of all had been my father...it was bad enough that he'd messed with Treize. But to mess with his (Treize's) fiance as well? My mother had been her; I remembered her only by a few cherished memories from the first five years of my life. The happiest times. My mother, Lady Ashley Une. (AN-I'm not sure about Lady Une's first name, all I know is that I never saw it mentioned, so I made up one. Please tell me if she _does_ have one, though, so I can correct this. Please, it is vital for my story coming up.)

And who on Earth would stop to think about the dire consequences being that offspring had been when Lady Une had been forced to surrender me, her only child at the tender age of five, to the father through court? Who would stop to think that I'd one day meet up with the very same people who had been within my mother's circle?

"Which way?" Heero Yuy asked in monotone, snapping me from my thoughts. I hadn't realized at all that, not only had we gone outside, but we'd climbed in the car and were now driving in the general direction of my house.

"Straight that way," I answered as evenly as I could. Why was I so nervous? It wasn't like he would hurt me. Oh...yeah...he would see my house! He'd know where I lived! Oh, no, now what do I do?

"Hn."  
Silence reigned in the car, leaving me all the more room to stew in my heated thoughts about what would happen if my father found out that a soldier knew where he lived. If my father heard the car...I was a dead girl. Dead meat. No, worse than meat; I was minced dead meat, ground to a fine powder and burned to a broiled crisp. The pendant was twisted so much around my neck that it'd begun to choke me. I released it, letting it spin back to its normal place.

I saw the street where my house was. A quick glance to Heero and I made my decision; I would lie. It would be easy, considering the fact that I still had my hood up _and_ he wasn't even looking at me. 

"This next street up here," I found myself saying, pointing to the next street block over. When we reached it, I gave a mental sigh. Even if he waited till I was inside, it wouldn't matter. All these were apartment complexes. I could just wait until he left, then race over to my real house without him even guessing, and still make it home in time.

"That one," I pointed to the second apartment complex. He stopped the car and waited. 

~~~

Siri Capri fidgeted the entire way to her house. She was nervous, but Heero couldn't tell why. Then, it hit him, very suddenly. She didn't want him to know where she lived. The other girls had asked him under their breath to tell them what her home was like; they'd never seen it. Why didn't Siri let people in her home?

As he turned down a street, she told him which apartment it was. He could easily tell this was not her home. These were for upper-society people, whose children had long since gone on. This was the place for rich old veterans to live in, not family men with children.

Heero stopped the car and waited for her to make her move to get out. Watching her slowly move her small hand to the handle, he caught a flash of dark black against her pale skin. Were those bruises? 

"You don't live here, do you?" he asked, very plainly. She gasped and pulled her hand to her chest in a very feeble manner, clutching the silver pendant there. He was curious as to why she did so. 

"W-What do you m-mean?" she stammered. "Of c-course I live h-here." Siri gulped hard.

"These are apartments for veterans," Heero pointed with his head. "They aren't allowed children. Where do you really live?"

She nodded gently and pointed carefully back out the road he had come. He backed out and she pointed again, at the road he had just passed. If he could have shown horror upon his carved-from-stone face, that was exactly the emotion you'd see. The house she pointed at didn't even look like it was being lived in.

The porch was sinking and the wood that was the siding was bare and moldy. There was one shattered window, boarded up with a piece of recent plywood, probably put there in the past two months. The yard was a mess, like it had never been mowed before. One whole section of the black-tiled roof was caved in, with several bits of sheetrock following it. He could see none of the inner rooms, but he was certain they were in far worse disrepair.

"Thank you."

The emerald-eyed girl slung her pack on her shoulder and left as though she'd never been there. Heero felt vile and putrid just leaving that poor girl here. He almost called her back; though why, he wasn't sure. She was different to him, even though he'd never seen her face. A whole mystery unto herself, one he would strive to solve before the week ended. 

But, somehow, secretly, he wondered if she would survive to the end of the week.

~~~

"Who was that, girl?!" shouted my father. His breath stank vilely of Jack Daniels with what I thought probably was a few Bloody Marys and perhaps a vodka.

"A friend," I answered carefully. "It was my teacher, sir, he said he was worried about me having to go home all alone."  
"Right!" he shouted sarcastically. "You probably slept with him, too, you whore! You're mine, you hear? Mine!" He picked me up by the scruff of my neck roughly, like a tiny puppy who'd done it on the floor. But I was certain he wasn't going to scold me nicely and slap a newspaper to his palms a few times (AN-I found out something; that newspaper sound? It works!).

No, indeed. He threw me on his bed and began to tear off my clothes faster than I could try and knock him out...

***

I groaned as I awoke the next morning. My father lay snoring on the floor next to me, though how that'd happened, I didn't know. I noticed a few new bruises on my upper and lower arms and up and down my legs and stomach. There were, luckily, no cuts, so I gingerly picked up my clothes and crossed the hall to my simple bedroom.

When I say simple, I mean it. It had an army cot with a thin, patched baby blanket that had been extended to fit my taller form and a dresser. Within the dresser were the clothes I wore; pants, T-shirts, and jackets. There weren't many colors; they were mostly blue. My father had wanted a boy and had bought clothes _for_ a boy. He'd ended up with me.

I dressed in a pair of black jeans, white T-shirt and cerulean jacket, replaced the make-up carefully, pulled on some shoes, shouldered my pack, and left for school. A quick, brisk walk in the crisp, pre-spring air was quite refreshing, especially for an exhausted, hollow being such as I. I loved my friends, dearly, but there was something more I was missing. Not quite love, I wouldn't say that, but the feeling of being needed, wanted, was simply not there.

And would never be. Never would half-empty-glass Siri be complete. Never.

***

"Capri," stated Heero, in his Harding guise. "In what colony was Maxwell raised?"

"He wasn't," I answered. "He was raised here on Earth by a church."

"Very good."  
This continued on, but I paid almost no attention to the actual conceivable words Heero was saying as much as I was to him in general. He did not move about or lean or have any sort of tick or rhyme to him. Perfect Soldier in many ways, I decided. The perfect nickname. Maxwell had been right. I lazily twisted my pendant between my thumb and forefinger, studying him closely, though not seeming to.

No, instead of crossing and uncrossing his legs or standing stiff and prim before the class, he simply stood at a sort of relaxed alertness stance. One I believed was properly referred to as "parade rest". 

His hands were perfectly clamped against his lower back, one coinciding fluidly with the other, and his legs were shoulders' width apart. He looked at each student as they spoke, giving neither a nod nor a shake. He said "very good" or "nicely stated" for correct answers, and "not quite" for those half-right and "ground zero" if they were wrong. He never faltered.

"Ichinoku, did Winner have any true blood siblings?"

"How should I know?"

"It is stated quite plainly in your textbook," Heero answered. 

"I don't read the book."

"Do you wish to drop from this class?"  
"Yes."  
"Then do it. Do not waste my time, or your classmates', Ichinoku."

The leader of the Dragons stood, fluffed his leather jacket, and strode out of the room without another word. Inside, I was fuming.

***

"Good morning, class," said Mr. Fawkes as he entered the room. "Today we will begin working with our partner teachers. I have assigned you each to one. Check the list in the back, then report to your teacher. They all have planning period now."

Tari and I packed up our things slowly, waiting for the twenty-some-odd people to file out of the room.

"How's this supposed to work again?" Tari asked doubtfully as she checked the list.

"You partner up with a teacher who's planning period is the same as this and you do a research project with them. It'll take six months to do, at least. You'll do a Power Point presentation, the both of you, to this class at the end of those six months," I explained carefully. "Who you got?"

"Mr. Shin."  
"Oh, Toraneko's gonna be jealous," I sing-songed her.

"I know _I'm_ jealous," Tari said, looking at my name. "_You've_ got the one guy you'll be seeing too often anyway. Harding. It was supposed to have been Peacecraft, obviously, but..."  
"But she got hurt and now I'm stuck with Mr. Monotone!" I groaned. "Gee, is my life gonna get worse or what?!"

"I should think so," Tari said grimly.

"Why's that?"

"He wants to do a project pertaining to his last class."  
"What's his last class? I thought Ms. Peacecraft only taught one kind!"

"He's started a new one, in the empty slot, her second planning period."

"On his own?" I asked. What the heck? Why would a temporary teacher start up a new course?  
"Yeah."

"What is it?" I was curious, duh. What class could he possibly teach?

"Martial Arts and Self Defense."

***

Tari left for Mr. Shin's and I grumbled all the way to "Harding's" classroom. Stupid Heero, why'd he have to go and make a whole new class? Ms. Peacecraft knew almost nothing about Martial Arts, she'd said so herself! What did that idiotic Perfect Soldier have up his sleeve?

"Just perfect," I muttered hotly as I climbed down the stairs to my first-period class. "Just _had_ to get stuck with Monotone. Just had to."

What was I going to do?

My pack shouldered, I stepped into the room. Heero was typing away robotically on his laptop, concealed only just within his briefcase. He hadn't noticed at all that I'd come inside.

"You know, that could get you in a lot of trouble," I told him matter-of-factly. He didn't suddenly jump up or look at me in surprise. In fact, he didn't even acknowledge me. "Hey, I'm talking to you, Perfect-"  
"Refrain from referring to me by that name here," he stated simply, supposedly finished because he closed the briefcase. "Call me what you like outside; in here, I am Mr. Harding." I rolled my eyes but nodded; I wasn't stupid, regardless what my normally-drunk father said.

"Why'd you start a new class if you'll only be here three months?" I asked, scowling. How on Earth were we going to give a presentation to my Gen Y class on such a physical topic?

"Releena is hurt worse than she thought," Heero answered smoothly, as though he rather was amused by the thought. However, there was no true amusement in his face, eyes, or voice, so how had I reached that bewildering conclusion? 

"So how long will she really be out?"

"Remainder of the school year or more."

A silence fell over us. I couldn't think of another topic to discuss for several minutes, and Heero seemed quite comfortable to not speak. Well, not exactly _comfortable_; I don't think he ever actually was such a thing. But the silence ate at me, like some kind of worm in my gut. I twisted my pendant around a moment. Finally, I found the words I needed and dropped it.

"So...what are we doing for this project? I mean, we have to give a report to the class in six months, and it's supposed to be research and-"  
"We will train you during this time," he answered instead. "The research will be different techniques."

Well, this was shock Class A.

"And..._why_, pray tell, would we want to do something like that?"

He was silent a moment, then spoke. His voice was gruff, as though he were trying to hold back tears, but I saw no evidence whatsoever of this, and his voice wasn't choked. It was still a monotone, but...it sounded like as close as he could get to being on the verge of crying.

"I do not wish to research history."

That answer baffled me for a few minutes before understanding dawned on me. How stupid of me. He had lived history, he'd had to have history fed directly into his brain from a synthetic computer system for hours. Heero Yuy had seen too much of history to look back on it. It would pain him too much.

But did Heero really feel pain? Was that the only ulterior motive to starting up a new class, among other things? From what I had seen of the Perfect Soldier, perfection was a cross on every "t" and a dot on every "i" and every enemy trampled like insects. However, I had the deepest feeling that Heero was lying. 

Lying to his friends. To what family he had. He was lying. Just like me. 

Chalk up likeness number one. Maybe Heero and I had more in common than I had previously thought.

"All right, then," I nodded bravely. "No history. You're my sensei and I'm your pupil."  
"Good. Come, Capri. Training begins today."

***


	5. Chapter 5

~~~

Heero had to admit; he had worked the girl a little harder than he'd intended. She was panting heavily and moaning into her still-jacketed arms. With a glance at the clock, he knew that her next class would be in fifteen minutes.

"You can rest," he told her. He wasn't really surprised she was so winded. Although she seemed thin, she was very out of shape. He could tell that even with the loose jacket and jeans draped over her thin frame.

"What were you trying to do?" Siri gasped at him as she caught enough air in her lungs to speak. "Kill me?!" 

"No. You are out of shape."  
"Duh! I haven't done much of anything in two years!"

"Why not?" Heero was curious about this, but camouflaged it easily.

"School," was her abrupt answer.  
"How?"

"You don't talk much, do ya?" she smirked at him. He could see the smirk in her eyes, even though her whole face was shrouded in shadow. Still, he hadn't seen her face. The only part of her not covered by clothing was her hands and eyes. Everything else was covered heavily in shadow and darkness and cloth.

Heero did not answer Siri's question, but she shrugged it off. She tugged the sleeves of her navy jacket and slowly pulled the thing off. It was then, for the very first time, that Heero saw Siri as she truly was.

He could not believe his eyes. The only way he could describe her was to think back to the ancient scripts he had studied under Quatre's request. Angelic, emerald green eyes stared out from beneath naturally-long lashes and pale blue eye shadow. A tiny, slightly upturned nose twitched as she set the jacket on the back of her chair and gave a whooshing sigh. Rosy cheeks, whether from make-up or natural means, he could not tell, and pale, cherry-blossom-pink lips characterized by an eternal smile. 

Chocolate hair fell over her shoulders and piled on the desk in front of her. It wasn't quite the reddish tint of Trowa's or the blondish of Duo's but neither was it the umber of his own. It was blinding in its own righteous shade. He wondered why on Earth she even wore the jackets she did, but then noticed several dark blemishes on her arms, which she was quick to cover.

More bruises. Where had she gotten them? Surely she wasn't attacked on the way to school? Was that it? Heero did not know. But what he did know was this; he did not like it.

***

~~~

It was only that afternoon that we next met. My jacket had long since been replaced around me, as I never was without it for long. He seemed a bit irritated by it but showed no signs. I wondered again how I simply knew he was displeased with my appearance. Tari, Telex, Toraneko, Raine, and I all had met at Ms. Peacecraft's home once more.

"I still don't see why we're helping them," grumbled Toraneko. None of the boys were within range and Ms. Peacecraft was asleep in her room. "They're the Gundam pilots."  
"That's _why_ we're helping them, TN," Raine said in explanation.

"That's no reason," Toraneko argued.

"Look, TN," I said to her, scowling. "You're jumping to far too many conclusions all at once. They may be soldiers, but remember, everyone has an honor and a destiny."  
"And fate and time are the only one's who tell us who they are," she repeated tiredly. "Siri, I've heard that from you a thousand times, but what does it mean?"

"It means you should try and give these guys a chance, TN," Tari explained. I gave her a thankful smile.

"Hey, girls, what's going on?" the braided one walked in. Duo was his name. Duo Maxwell.

"Okay, thank you, Mr. Maxwell," I smiled dazzlingly.

"Just Duo's fine, Siri," he grinned sheepishly. "I'm not _that_ much older than you."

"All right, Duo," I grinned again before releasing a pleasant giggle.

"Hey, Siri, isn't your birthday coming up soon?" Telex asked in a change of subject. She was good at that when she needed to be. 

"Yeah," I blushed. "You guys don't have to do nothin' special..."  
"Aw, that's our Siri," Tari teased. "Modest as ever!"  
"Tari!" I shouted, my face flushing.  
"When?" Duo asked out of the blue. Well, not for him, anyway. He didn't know.

"February," I answered, blushing still. "The eighth."

"Yahoo, our girl's gonna be seventeen!" Raine cheered happily, her arms raised in the air. Wufei entered the room and silence fell.

"Hello, Wufei," I waved cheerfully.

"Hn. Baka onna."

My face fell and I pulled my hand back into my lap quickly. 

"Wu-man, don't call her that!" Duo reprimanded Wufei, all cheerfulness gone.

"It's all-" I began, but was cut off.  
"Yeah, Mr. Chang, she's no more of an idiot than Duo is!"

"As if that is saying much," stated Heero as he entered the room. Hurt as I was by his words, I showed none of those feelings. I only laughed at Duo with the others. It was then that I saw my favorite animal pinned up on the wall, a painting by one of the most famous artists of our time, Ookami.

"Oh!" I shouted happily. "Wolfie! I love wolves!" Study of the painting revealed the intricate lines made by the wonderfully textured oil paints. The painting showed highlights of beautiful gold amongst the amber fur that the wolf had. My eyes were held captured by its, however, as I saw it was my favorite color; blue. 

No one bothered me for a few moments, but soon after, I was beckoned to join the group to discuss the search of the school once again.

"I have taken the liberty of drawing up a plan," Trowa said calmly, handing us each a stack of papers. "Quatre helped, of course."  
"Yes. What you five will do is take each of these students into your own perspective and watch them closely. Follow them after school and make sure they aren't part of the drug trafficking. Then report back here every afternoon and check the name off for either."  
"What if you still consider them suspicious?" TN asked.

"A question mark will suffice," Trowa answered.

With a few more instructions and precautions, we started in on our evening homework.

***

~~~

Kyle Rem flew swiftly toward the run-down houses. Yes, flew, for he was in the shape of a falcon. Rem was a demon, after all. He counted down the numbers on them, down to 385 Gerald Street, shifting back to his human form in the barely-there driveway. 

"Caprice!" he roared, thundering his fist on the door. "Caprice, open this door!" A sleepy-looking Italian answered the door and goggled at his boss, at a loss for words. "We need to have a few words, Caprice."

"Y-Yes, Mr. Rem, sir, come inside, sir, mustn't catch a chill, sir," Caprice stammered, letting the tall, lanky supposed school principal into his extremely humble home.

"Caprice, where is your daughter?" Rem snarled haughtily. The Italian stared at his master cluelessly. "_Well?!_"

"I...I don't know, sir, she u-usually doesn't g-get back until...um...seven."

"You let her stay out that late?" Rem snapped. "She could be doing a million things! Where is your head, man? Oh, yes, I know," he sneered slyly, "it's in your shorts." Caprice looked shocked a few moments before nodding stupidly.

"Caprice! I expect you to know where that child is 24/7 from now on! We've had a few leaks, and I expect no more," Rem glowered at the slow man angrily. "Is that clear, Caprice?!"

"Y-Y-Yes, sir, Mr. Rem, sir, Toy will be kept in careful proximity, sir!" Caprice clipped, military-style.

"Toy?" Rem snarled.

"I-I...I meant Siri, sir."

Rem blinked at Caprice. "Siri _Capri_?"  
"Y-Yes, sir, sh-she shortened her l-last name for s-school, sir. S-she goes to yours, s-sir."

"All the more, then. She had Peacecraft and Harding and the newly-troublesome teacher, Shin," Rem muttered, more to himself than his crony. "Keep a sharp eye on that girl. She needs little more than a push to set her off."

Caprice stared as Rem let himself out the door, muttering to himself about "darned women" and crazy powers. He shook his head and sighed, hoping not to cross paths with Kyle Rem for a long time yet.

At that moment, he heard the door open. And he snapped.

***

~~~  
"Heero," Trowa stated to the umber-haired boy later that night. It was seven and Heero had long since driven Siri home again, still wondering how on Earth she had gotten those bruises. The auburn hair Trowa had was haphazardly everywhere, and it was obvious he hadn't gotten any sleep in at least two days.

"Trowa."  
"The tracer..." Trowa's voice trailed off, and he was obviously puzzled. Heero was surprised, though he did not show it, that Trowa was such. It wasn't every day something bedazzled the amnesia-shaken ex-clown.

"What about it?" Heero asked. His monotone never wavered.  
"It was quite strange. The tracer was there one moment, gone the next. Then it reappeared about three miles away, in less than fifteen minutes."

"You are certain?" Even Heero's voice held a nanometer of surprise in it.

"Yes. But that is not all."  
Wufei came up behind the European boy, panting. "Yuy, the tracer reappeared in the exact same place you stopped."  
Heero's blood ran cold.

"Capri may be in danger," Trowa voiced the worry. Wufei did not say anything. He did not care about the idiot girl. But he did care if the other guys were hurt because of her. 

"We're going," Heero grabbed his bullet-proof vest and his gun. Releena, who was sitting on the couch in the other room (where he had last put said items) inquired where he was going.

"Siri's in trouble, 'Lena," Duo reported as he, too walked into the room. Releena was at last out of her neck brace and could move her lips and such. She gasped in shock.   
"But...how...what..."  
"No time to explain, Miss Releena," Quatre said as he hurriedly grabbed his things as well. Within a few moments and a whistle of wind, Releena watched them back out of her driveway and speed away faster than she'd ever seen them go. 

***

~~~

Several falcons surrounded the house at odd locations as Heero drove off. He'd let me out at precisely six forty-five and I was wasting as much of my time outside of the house as I could. It was during this little bit of time that I noticed them. Falcons everywhere, golden feathers with reddish, brownish, and black feathers, white feathers, any color you could think of that wasn't tropically normal for a falcon.

Although I did not study falcons on a regular basis, I did happen to notice that most, if not all of them, were peregrine falcons. Mostly golden-brown feathers with them. An abrupt reminder of fifty-something books I'd read from the library. _Animorphs_. I'd loved that series so much.

I knew, however, that it was not natural for birds of prey to sit on telephone wires and the roofs of cars and houses. There were several that even stood regally in the middle of the road. There were many things wrong with this picture.

1) Birds of prey do not stay together. They hunt and live alone; 2) Peregrine falcons in particular are known to attack other birds, not sit passively with them; 3) Why on Earth were they all staring at me with their golden eyes that could see a mouse three miles away?; and 4) No peregrine falcon enjoys the night. They are not owls, which can see through darkness as if they had minute suns in their eyes. In the darkness that had fallen, their eyes were no better than mine. 

Perturbed by this analysis of my surroundings, I headed inside. I'd rather be beaten up by my father early then stand here with what felt like a billions eyes watching my every move. It reminded me severely of Mr. Rem when he sometimes subbed for Fawkes, when he had to fix the computers elsewhere in the school.

"Brat, get in here!" my father thundered the moment I entered the house. Surprised as I was, I made my way toward the kitchen, where my father was seated at the table, his nostrils flared in anger.

"You little whore!" he snarled upon my entrance, leaping to his feet. He was not drunk, for once. Or high in any other way. He was actually sober, which surprised me. Maybe he was getting better off it? "Where have you been?!"

"I was at Miss Peacecraft's, doing my homework, Daddy," I smiled at him, trying not to faint from the sudden onslaught of scents that had reached me, only the moment he had opened the refrigerator.

"Brat, from now on, I expect you to head home _immediately_ after school lets out," he growled. 

"But Daddy-"  
Big mistake.

"Why you little-"

He cut himself off and threw his fist into my jaw. I heard a rather loud snapping noise and felt as though my jaw had been ripped out of its socket. As suddenly as my jaw was severed, I was suddenly in an embrace that cracked my back painfully. He pressed himself against me, and so close were we that one would have sworn we weren't two, but one. 

Several more shoots of pain in my face caused my throat to involuntarily whimper. Simply staring at me with a void countenance, my father said nothing. There was a ravenous hunger in his eyes, something I saw in him only once; when he'd looked at my mother in the court hearing that day, only about twelve years ago.

**FLASH**

"Where are we going, Mommy?" I asked my mother, my chubby hand clenched in her long, slender one. Her chocolate hair swirled around her in grace in the wind. Mine was still so short, but they were cut into straight bangs that never seemed to fix themselves, and two small pigtails.

"We are going to court, Siri," she smiled at me, but I could tell she was worried. What about? It wasn't as though the court could hurt her...was it?

"Why are we going to court?" Inquiries of a child to a worried mother are often not heard. This was one of those times. "Mommy?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry, Siri, honey, I didn't hear you."  
"Why are we going, Mommy?"

"Your father wants to take you from me, Siri. But I don't want to let you go."  
Fear overcame me. "Mommy, no! I don't wanna go to daddy, he was mean to you!"

"Yes, I know."

We walked together into a room full of people. Some sat in wooden benches similar to church pews. I saw Mr. Treize among them and waved to him excitedly. He gave a small wave with his own, white-gloved hand as well. I gave a small sigh of relief. Surely with Mr. Treize here, I wouldn't go to daddy.

Then, I saw him. Greasy black hair, narrow dark eyes and an eager look on his face as he watched my mom sit down in the chair adjacent to him. He was on the left; Mommy and I on the right. Watching us both with eyes that seemed so full of something that made me uncomfortable, I could only stare at him.

"Who's that, Mommy?" I asked her, toying nervously with my silver pendant. I'd never met him before.  
"That is...that's your father, Siri."

My heart stopped and my blood ran cold in my veins. I did not hear the judge enter the room, nor did I feel my mother standing me up to honor him. I stared at the man who sat across the aisle and my eyes never left him. His eyes, on the other hand, never left my mother. It was only when he stood to go to the stand that I snapped from my reverie. 

Questions were asked of him, questions I knew were untrue. Mr. Treize raised several "objections", but they all were rejected. When the man I now knew to be my father sat down again, I watched his eyes follow my mother, fidgeting far worse now.

When all was said and done, and the little wooden hammer the judge held fell, my mother was crying. My father looked from her to me and gave the most sadistic grin I had ever beheld in my young life. It was then that I knew I was in trouble.

**FLASH**

Pressed against my father, his lips on mine, rubbing the snapped jawbones together painfully, I did not feel him move away from me for a few seconds. Dizzy as I was from the constant, stabbing pain in my jaw, I was able to make out only one conclusion of what he was doing. A small bottle was in his hand, along with a napkin.

I fell to the ground, the pain becoming white hot and far more disconcerting than before. Suddenly, the napkin was against my nose and mouth and I didn't care anymore. The only thing that mattered to me now was the blackness that I was sinking into...

~~~

Heero hadn't driven this fast since the last time he'd been in Wing Zero. The prospect of finding Siri dead drove him even faster. She was special, too special to be lost. Mysterious as she was, she was still his student and his friend. One of his friends.

Plus, Duo was muttering in his ear.

"Come on, Heero man, drive faster...come on...she's in danger, Heero, there's no way she's not...Heero, faster...come on, you can drive faster than that! We can get food afterward, too, you know. Come on, Heero, pedal to the metal, man..."  
"Wufei, take care of this nuisance," Heero stated calmly as he drove ever faster. Wufei nodded, a glint of a smile in his eyes as he tugged the braided boy backward by his braid.

However, any glee Wufei had found in pulling Duo by his hair to make him shut up was quickly forgotten when they rounded the corner. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of birds surrounded the house. Falcons, as Quatre stuttered. They all stared at the blue car in which Heero and the other four ex-pilots with a glare so deadly, it tied with Heero's. 

And, driving off down the road at top speed, was a golden maintenance van. In the rear window was the Indian, Caprice. Next to him, leaning against the window and looking dead or at least unconscious, was Siri Capri.

By the time they had realized that Siri was in the van, however, it had reached the end of the road, where it suddenly disappeared without a trace. Vanished into thin air.

"Talk about your fancy getaways," Duo murmured despite the dire situation.

***


	6. Chapter 6

"What are we going to do?" Tari asked, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Siri's been kidnapped!"  
"Oh...this can't be good, this cannot be good," Raine wrung her hands, and was joined by Telex in this. The pilots were all silent, but Releena seemed the most disturbed by the news.  
"It's all my fault, if I hadn't asked you kids to help-"  
"No, Miss Peacecraft!" Toraneko told her sternly. "This is not your fault. It's them!" She pointed nastily to the five ex-Gundam pilots. "It's just like I've been saying all along! We can't trust ex-soldiers for nothin'!"

"Tora-" Raine began.  
"No, Raine, don't you dare try to stick up for them," Toraneko snarled haughtily. "Nor you, Telex. You guys are my best friends, I don't want you to be brainwashed by the likes of them!"

"Toraneko, you listen here and you listen good," Tari's voice was choked at a whisper, but it was heard quite clearly over the others. "Siri has, and always will be, my best friend. She's always had a good instinct on people from the start. Siri trusted them, and if Siri trusts them, then I trust them too."

"But Tari-"  
"Toraneko, did you hear me? You will not waver my decision. It was not Heero or Duo or Wufei or Quatre or Trowa's fault, you hear me? In fact, we wouldn't even know if it wasn't for them. Okay?"

Toraneko looked up at Tari and smiled. "I still don't fully trust these guys...but if you trust them, I will."

"Now that that's settled, what the hell are we gonna do?!" Telex shouted. It wasn't every day you heard Telex yelling at people, so you could tell she was worried, at least.

"Okay, let's start off with the most obvious question," Quatre said. "Why would someone want to kidnap Siri at all?"

"She knows something," Tari answered automatically.

"Yes, just like the rest of us, Tari," Telex stated sarcastically. "Everyone at school knows she would tell us anything. Why not kidnap the rest of us?"

"Do you think she knows something we don't know? Something she saw or heard or they thought she did, and that's why?" Raine thought aloud. 

Heero watched the four girls talking between themselves. He had to admit, Siri did have good taste in friends. Each of these girls had their own strength and they were all intelligent to some degree. And they all cared about her. The thing that bothered him, though, was why he was the only one, or thought he was, anyway, that had ever noticed her bruises?

"What about her father?" Releena asked. "He _is_ in legal custody of her. And who is her mother? I know the court took Siri away from her."

"Trowa, look him up," Duo snapped the order. The other three pilots blinked at him in shock.  
"Maxwell, I didn't think you would ever actually say anything so intelligent," Wufei said, being perfectly serious and honest. Nervous laughter ran through them.

Trowa had been bringing up the school site and was hacking his way through.

"It will take a few moments," he said calmly. "This is a well-guarded site."

"I'm gonna go see if I can get Mr. Shin," Toraneko said at once. "He's perfectly trustworthy and we need more allies."  
"More like you need a boyfriend, TN," Telex teased her. She blushed. "But you're right. Go ahead." Toraneko nodded and sprinted out the door. Then came back, her face redder than just simply red.

"I think I'll call him first. Maybe he's already left school."

She picked up the phone and dialed ten numbers. 

"Hello, this is Kai Shin, can I help you?"

"Hey, Mr. Shin, are you gonna be at school for a while?" TN asked him. "I need to talk to you about, uh...about my grade."  
"Yeah, Toraneko, I'm going to be here until about eight-thirty tonight, grading that test you all took today. Sure, you can come in and ask me."  
"Okay, I'll see you soon, Mr. Shin. Bye." She hung up quickly and was gone in a flash.

***

~~~

A groan was heard reverberating about the place in which I lay. I could tell I was bound and that I was moving. Probably inside a van or truck of some sort. Looking around, ignoring the white-hot and dizzying pain I felt in my jaw, I only came to one conclusion; it was dark. 

"Awake already?" grumbled a voice. One I knew all too well. My father. "What are you, some kind of witch?"  
"Daddy?" I spoke shakily, my voice high from lack of hydration and the snapped bones in my jaw. Oh, how it hurt. I could not fully involve you in the pain, it would cause you so much agony just thinking about it. "What-"  
"Oh, shut the hell up, brat, it's not like it's gonna do ya any good." He brought out the bottle from before and the blackness became complete yet again as I swirled into a dizzying darkness of the consciousness.

~~~  
"Hey, Toraneko, how's everything going?" Mr. Shin said upon her entrance. His dark-blue eyes closed happily and the white hair tipped a bit. She closed the door behind her, glancing around the room with her dark brown eyes for any cameras.  
"Toraneko, what's going-"  
"No time to explain, we've gotta get out of here. _Now_," TN said to him. "We're in danger as long as we are inside this school."

"Toraneko, are you playing some kind of prank-"  
"This isn't a joke!" TN screamed. She gasped and covered her mouth quickly. "Oh, great, now we gotta leave even faster. Come _on_, Mr. Shin, I'll explain on the way to Ms. Peacecraft's house."

He nodded, suddenly realizing that his prize student was not bluffing in any way. The twenty-year-old teacher dropped what he was doing and stood, grabbing only his coat and briefcase, leaving the papers he was grading on his desk. 

"I knew there was something wrong with Rem, but I didn't realize it was so urgent," Mr. Shin said as they ran down the corridor toward the front door. "I have a small idea what's going on. He's been dealing drugs through the school, am I right?"

"Yeah, and another thing. We have reason to believe he's kidnapped Siri," Toraneko stated rashly, hopping into the passenger side of his car. He stared at her a moment before climbing in as well, starting the car with renewed fervor.

"Then we had best get to Releena's house, then, hadn't we?"

***

~~~  
"Sir, they've left the school. I think he knows something's up," the Indian stated into his cell phone quietly. Deer Waterweed gave a small sigh and ran his fingers through his long black hair as he listened to Rem's reply.

"Just the girl and Shin, correct?"

"Yes."  
"Bring the girl to me. Do whatever you want with Shin."

Waterweed gave an evil grin, a fire alit in his brown eyes. He repeated his master's words in his mind as he agreed and hung up. _Do whatever you want with Shin..._

Like a bat in the night, he raced after the car, his legs pumping inhumanly fast. Running as fast as the cheetah, he caught up with the car in seconds. An ocelot suddenly pounced on the hood of the car where Shin and Toraneko were driving.

Two screams, one significantly higher-pitched and more hysterical, ripped through the night. The ocelot leapt at Shin, tearing his flesh to shreds with its sharp claws and teeth, splashing blood of the deepest red all over poor Toraneko. 

When the ocelot had finished its short meal upon Shin, it turned toward the hysterical but silent Toraneko. She did not remain silent for long. The ocelot ripped her arm, spewing blood onto the seat next to what was left of Shin's corpse. It dragged her, kicking and screaming, onto the pavement, dragging her far away, then stuffing her into a bag.

Waterweed shifted back to his original form, holding the dark-haired girl in the bag. She was still kicking, but her screams had condensed to mere whimpers.

"Sit still, or you will suffer the same fate," he snarled at her. She immediately stopped kicking, but still whimpered, an occasional sob echoing in the dimly-lit alleyway in which he had dragged her.

However, in the car, a dim light encased Shin's corpse, rebuilding his flesh...

***

Trowa's eyes suddenly widened. The entire room, which had been buzzing with ideas, ground to a halt. Several crickets chirping outside were the only ones who could be heard.   
"What is it, Trowa?" Telex asked with baited breath. She had learned very well by now that if either Trowa or Heero showed any kind of emotion, something was seriously up.

"The tracer..."

"Oh, no," Tari moaned into her arms, tears suddenly overcoming her. "Toraneko..."

"That's two of us down," Telex murmured.  
"And three to go," Raine stated, strangely calm.

***

~~~  
The next time I awoke, I was no longer in the van, or whatever it was. Now I was tied, rather tightly, to a wooden chair in the center of a square room. The only light was a small bulb overhead that cast an eerie bluish glow over the stone room. I was cold and hungry, but truly, when was I not?

I noticed that my jacket was gone, as well as my socks and shoes. My hair had been taken out of its ponytail. In my haste to look at my clothes, I had completely forgotten my jaw, which reminded me of itself quickly. If any of my friends had seen me now, they would have been unable to determine whether or not it was truly me.

My attention was drawn to the shadowed doorway by the sound of someone clicking their tongue pityingly at me. I strained in the blue light to see their face, but I needn't have tried. He stepped into the light mere seconds after I looked up.

My gasp rang out in the room, as though we stood in a deep chasm rather than a small room. I tried to speak his name, but my jaw did not work properly anymore.

"Oh, you poor little thing," he said, though I could see that he obviously did not mean it. "You're all hurt."

I growled in my throat. It hurt my jaw to even do that, but I no longer cared.

"Strange, isn't it, Siri, that the one person who was said to have been your protector and guide is the one who will eventually destroy you?"  
My growls weren't as loud, but I made them heard.

"It's much more fun if you can talk to me," he grinned. There was a gleam in his eyes not unlike the ones I'd seen in the falcons' eyes. He pointed to my jaw and, as suddenly as he did so, my jaw was healed.

"What are you doing, Rem?" I snarled at him. "This isn't right and you know it. Why do you want to destroy _me_?! Or Releena or Hee-Harding? Why is my father helping you?"  
"Slow down, little vixen," he sneered. "You will lose that songbird's voice of yours."   
"Why do you mock me!?" 

"You truly wonder," he grinned at me, bending to my eyelevel, his hands resting on his knees. "The Holder of Power knows not she holds it. So cute."

Holder of Power? What the hell? He must have seen the blank look that overcame my face, for he laughed.   
"Yes, little vixen, yes, think. Give yourself your own power. Join me, vixen, or die. Holder of Power, you are destined for neither good nor evil, for there is neither. There is only power."

__

There is only power...

Where had I heard that before? Where? So many books swirling about in my head, where had I heard this phrase before? It was a book, a fantasy, yet it was so real. But what was it? The main character...what was his name? Black hair, unruly, green eyes, as emerald a shade as mine...

***

~~~

"Got it," Trowa said, neither triumphantly nor any other emotion. He had brought up the information on Siri's father and mother. And he did not like it. Not one bit.  
"What's it say, Trowa?" Quatre asked, not daring to focus on Toraneko's sudden disappearance.

"Her father's...gone by many names," Trowa said, looking over it. "His current one is Vince Ravioli Caprice."

There was silence in the room as they all slowly made the connection.

"The Italian who attacked Releena...was Siri's father?" Raine inquired slowly, bewildered beyond comprehension.

"How is that possible?" Telex asked. Tari began to speak as well.

"Yeah, she never seemed the type to have such a-"

"Isn't it obvious?" Heero stated, cutting Tari off. The others stared at him. A monotone at this point was as intimidating as a shout on any of their parts.

"_What's_ obvious?" said Telex.

"She is the way she is because of the way her father treated her," Duo realized. "She wasn't being analogical when she said her father would kill her..."  
"Sh-she was being _serious_?!" Tari and Raine both agreed silently with their dusty-blond friend. 

"All those times she had her hood up..." Raine murmured. "We've never seen her face, but we didn't think..."  
"No. We didn't," Tari said grimly. Silence reigned.

Frantic knocking at the door broke their reveries. 

"But...Toraneko's..." Telex and the others looked at each other. 

"But what about Kai?" Releena asked, voicing herself for the first time for a while. After a few seconds of silence, Heero grabbed his gun and held it in front of him, ready to fire if it wasn't Shin.

"Harding, thank god!" Shin cried upon Heero's answer of the door. He quite understood the gun and allowed himself to be led into the house, where explanations were passed about, from the attack on Releena to their realization of Siri and her father.

Then inquiries began about Shin's outer appearance, which was covered in his own blood.  
"I was killed," he said simply. Gasps rang out and he had to calm the others before he continued.  
"But...Mr. Shin-"  
"Shin is fine, Telex."  
"Shin, how can you still be standing there without any pain? Are you a ghost or something?"

"No...a god."

Silence. Only crickets were heard.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, A-"  
"Telex, will you shut up a minute?!" Tari yelled at her. Raine still remained silent. If Shin was a god...Toraneko...she would be so disappointed.

"Explain," Heero grunted.

"Of course. I was sent here on orders to watch certain demons who were trying to restart the flames of the war. This dimension has become so unbalanced..."  
"Wait a moment. Dimension?" Quatre was paler than the Gundam boys had ever seen him. 

"It's a long story. Basically, the universe is divided into thousands, probably millions, of different dimensions in which a balance must be had. 

"There is a central Spirit World, where I come from, that regulates this balance. Five prisoners have escaped the SWDS's, or Spirit World Detective Squad, custody and have hidden themselves here, in this town. 

"I disguised myself as a teacher, because I suspected the principal, Rem, to be one."

"What did these prisoners do, exactly?" Tari asked, more bravely than she felt.

"Tried to take over dimensions, or destroy them," Shin gave her a wry smirk. "Like any old villain in a movie or book. That's where they come from, after all."  
"What do you mean, come from?" Duo snapped.

"That's how dimensions and people are born. By someone else imagining them into existence."

"What's Siri and Toraneko got to do with them, then?" Raine asked, quietly.

"The five are demons," Shin answered. "In order for them to get their own bodies back, they need two sacrifices. One is the body in which they inhabit. The other is a girl who has lost her virginity." Everyone suddenly looked ill.

"But Toraneko and Siri haven't lost their virginity," Tari yelped in surprise.

"You forget, Tari," Shin said quietly. "That the majority of the demons have inhabited men."

***


	7. Chapter 7

Toraneko moaned aloud as she awakened, in a cold, dank place. She could not see, for it was dark, but she could tell she was out of the bag. But she wasn't alone. Hot breath played its way against her cool cheek and her whole being stiffened. It was then that she realized that she was tied to a wooden chair.

"Awake at last, little one, purest one," snarled the man softly. He straddled her lap, far too heavy, but she didn't care how much he weighed; she just wanted him off of her.

"Virginity is a horrible thing to waste," he growled against her. Her eyes widened. Oh, no, this was _not_ happening! "But it will wait." She heaved a sigh of relief as he stood straight. He exited through the door and she gave a huge shuddering breath. Sobs floated from her mouth as she recalled, very vividly, what had happened.

"Shin..." she whispered in between her gulping cries.

***

Harry Potter! That was his name. The person who said those words...they were Voldemort's words!_ There is no good or evil...there is only power..._

It was the evil in him that spoke. He had exited the room, telling me to think it over, but I sat there, stunned still. How were the others going to rescue me? Why was I being held captive at all? Because I knew something? 

No, it was obvious that was not the only reason, least be said.

Another moan in the corner of the room brought me out of my reverie of thoughts. That person...who was it? It was a woman, I knew that much. She was about twice my age, thirty-something. Who was she? She sounded familiar. I tugged on the ropes that held me bound, to no avail. They were tied tight.

"E-Excuse me?" I called out to the other person. "Who's there? Can you help me?"

"S-Sure," she murmured, crawling to the chair. She was using the last of her strength, I could tell, but I did not ask her to stop. She seemed so determined to help me, as though she had nothing else that would give her more pleasure. So I let her continue on. 

The nameless woman reached me and picked at the ropes only a moment before I was free. I collapsed to the ground, my feet unable to support me. 

"Thank you," I smiled at her warmly, but her face made my breath catch in my throat. It wasn't that she was cut or bruised as I was, nor was she extremely ugly or extremely pretty. It was that she was so familiar. So very familiar...

"Do I know you?" we both asked at the same time. A chuckle ran through us despite our predicament.

"I'm-" we both began, but stopped as we both realized the other was speaking.

"You go-" and it happened again. We shared a laugh.  
"We're never gonna get anywhere," I smirked at her.

"I agree," she nodded, a smile so small, she hardly looked like she was smiling at all. She reminded me a bit of Heero.   
"My name is Siri Capri," I said, holding out my still-throbbing hand. Instead of answering, her eyes went wide and she gasped. Then, after a moment of deep, steadying breaths, she threw her arms around me and hugged me so tightly, so warmly, so wonderfully lovingly, that I almost forgot this woman was a stranger as far as I knew.

"Is it really you, Siri?" she asked tearfully, pulling back. "You probably don't even remember me, it's been, what, eleven years? Siri, it's me. Ashley Une, your mother!"

"M-Mom?" I whispered reproachfully. "M-Mother?"

"Yes, yes, Siri, honey, it's me, it's mom," she half sobbed, half laughed to me. "Do you still have it? The pendant, dear?"

"The pendant..." I lifted it from my neck and she smiled. 

"Do you remember, Siri? Anything at all? You were only five, after all..."  
"I remember. Mother, father's been the worst, I swear it upon all things sacred," I told her as I swung the pendant from around my neck. She took it from me, grim now as she examined it. "Why have we been taken, Mother?" I asked her. "Why me and you? What's father and Principal Rem have to do with any of this? Why did he call me the Holder of Power?"

"Siri, honey, this is going to sound strange..." my mother began slowly. "But your father, as well as Rem and three other men, are demons from another dimension. They're trying to get their own bodies back. And they need us to do it."  
"How do they need us?"

My mother was silent a moment before she answered. "Sacrifices."

I gulped, bitter vile rising in my throat. How were the others going to save me? I'll bet anything they didn't even know the urgency of my peril. Worse yet, what if they didn't come at all? My worries played through my head, and I'm sure my face went paler and sicker as more images shot past my idling brain.

***

~~~  
Grim as they were, the Gundam boys, Shin, and the three remaining girls (excluding Releena) gathered together what power they could. Heero and Duo (Duo talking the most) gave the girls a crash course in shooting a gun. Shin showed them the path they would have to take in order to get into the blank alter-dimension in which he had tracked Toraneko's disappearance. They could only hope that Toraneko, Siri, and any other prisoners the demons had taken were still alive.

Heero was grimmer and more worried than he'd ever been in his entire life. Never had he encountered true demons. Only those of his own past, and those he fought in his mind each and every day. Yes, he even worried about Siri's safety.

Actually, if he stopped to think about it, he was hysterical, in his own way, over Siri's safety. He'd never been this crazy about saving Releena; she'd always been like a sister to him, never truly what she wished him to be. Duo constantly said that the two were good for each other, but the braided idiot knew, deep down, that Heero was looking for someone else.

Raine, the second friend Siri had met at school, was near a state of panic in her mind's sight. However, she'd always been known to keep a cool head in a crisis. That's exactly what she was; cool as a cucumber outside, and pandemonium inside.

Tari, the very first friend Siri had ever had (though she did not know it), really _was_ panicking on the outside. Her hands twisted together as though she were trying to break her own fingers, and the gun Heero had handed her was quickly taken by Wufei, who muttered under his breath about women being incapable of wielding true weapons.

Telex, however, had suddenly turned into a very Heero-like person. The gun that Duo had given her was firmly in its sheath and she stood in a half-parade rest and half-rest position. (AN-For those of you who don't know, I was in JROTC for five years. If you have any questions about the positions I say, email me or Sarah [Angel of the Dragon] and we'll get back to you.) Instead of pacing about, like Tari was at the moment, or running through last minute details on their small crash-course lesson, like Raine, she stayed put. 

Even the Chinese Wufei had to admit that Telex was very good at keeping still. In fact, she was quite regal and powerful, in his point of view. (AN-Telex, I'm sorry. I couldn't get Veggie-chan into the plot somehow, so you'll have to deal with the G-boys. Can you guess which one I picked out for you?) But he had more important things to pay attention to; like the ramblings that Shin was belting out about how to get to the alter-dimension.

"It's kind of like being inside a washing machine without the water," Shin was going on. "You have to hold on for dear life to the person in front of you. I'll lead the way, but you'll have to keep your grip _steady_."

"Sure you can handle that, onna?" Wufei snarled to Telex.

"Of course."

"Telex, are you all right?" Tari asked her. "You don't seem like yourself."  
"We're going to rescue Siri, Tari. If it's the last thing I do."

An eerie silence fell for but a moment.

"All right, let's get going," Heero said, surprising them all. Usually, the Perfect Soldier liked those tense moments when nothing was said. It was quite unlike him to suddenly break such a taboo so quickly.

"Great idea, Heero man," Duo grinned. He himself was looking forward to this. It wasn't often he got to be the Shinigami again.

Trowa remained silent. He was always silent. Always the observer. Trowa Barton had lost his memory countless times, being rescued by only those he loved. His sister, Catherine. His best friend, Quatre. All of his friends. He looked to Quatre, who was white-faced. It wasn't often the polite heir to a fortune was so quiet. Trowa knew something was bothering Quatre. But what could it be?

"Everyone ready?" Shin asked. Nods and murmurs. "Grab your neighbors' hands. We're in for a bumpy ride."  
"Like a roller coaster!" Duo cheered, causing more ill faces than happier ones. 

"No, Duo," Shin told him with a sigh. "Much, much worse."  
Somehow, that did not help. However, hands were clenched tightly as Shin grabbed a hold of Tari's right hand. Making certain that everyone was ready, he opened a black portal before him. 

"Remember," he called, "stick close."

And into the black hole they walked.

***

Toraneko whimpered in the dim light of her cell, or whatever it was. She was so cold and weary, she didn't think she could stand it if the ocelot creature came back again. Tears had long since failed her and she was extremely thirsty by now. How long had it been? An hour? Two hours? Three? Four? A day? She couldn't know.

All she knew was that she didn't want that man to come back, the one who had told her that virginity was a waste. She hoped he was only trying to terrorize her, just bluffing. He was doing a good job of it, if he was.

Her dark hair was matted to her face by now, framing her dark eyes from the tears and sweat, and a tiny amount of blood. She hadn't noticed it, but there was a shallow scrape just below her cheekbone, probably from the ocelot.

The sound of the door opening was not a welcome sound. Looking up, she saw it was the same man as before. Her eyes went wide with fright when she saw that he held fresh clothes for her. She hoped beyond hope he would simply untie her and leave her to change. 

That hope was dashed to pieces.

"A terrible waste, it is, little Tiger Cat. I hope you can back up your name, little one..." 

However, before he could do anything, he suddenly crumpled to the floor, twitched a moment, and fell still and silent at last. Standing in the doorway was the last person she had ever expected to see again. He placed a finger to his lips and motioned outside the door.

"S-Shin?" she whispered. "I-I thought that...that you were..."  
"Dead," he finished quietly. "I'm a lot harder to kill than you think, Toraneko. I'll explain later. For now we have to get Siri and any other prisoners out of here." As he spoke, he untied the ropes that were cutting off her circulation. She rubbed her wrists a bit to bring back the feeling, then threw her arms around her rescuer. 

"Thank you, Shin," she whispered, letting him go at last with a small kiss on his cheek.

"N-n-n-no pr-problem," he stammered. And was that a blush spreading across his face? She could only hope. And right now, she wished nothing more than that hope be true.

"Come on, the others are waiting." 

They rejoined the group, a quick hug between the four girls, and they began to search out Siri. Each cell along the hall was empty with the exception of the very last one, in which was a peculiar sight. On the floor sat two chocolate-haired girls, one about seventeen and one about thirty-five. However, the younger looked so much older than she really was, and the elder so much younger, that the two looked like they could be very close sisters, or even twins. Only one person realized who they were.  
"Capri!" Heero hissed through the door. Both girls looked up and hissed at the same time.

"_Heero?!_"

"I thought I'd never see you again!" said the younger, speaking quietly.

"I thought you were dead!" said the elder, also speaking quietly. They exchanged looks, then giggled softly. 

"Heero, is that really _Siri_?" Tari asked, mouth agape. None of the four girls had ever seen her without that confounded hood over her head.

"Yes."

The team set to work pulling the door open, and soon both of them were out.

"Let's get. Explanations can wait," Shin said firmly. He explained quickly to Siri, the unknown elder woman, and Toraneko what to do, then they set it into action. It was only a matter of seconds before all eleven were safely back in Releena's mansion.

***

~~~

After explanations and introductions (for Une), questions began to arise. Especially over my claim to be the "Holder of Power", so called by Rem. Confusing as it was, Shin knew what it was immediately. And he was one unhappy god.

"This is not good, Siri, not good at all," he muttered, clapping his hand on my shoulder from my right. Heero looked murderous as he did so, and I wondered why. I soon found out.

"_What's_ not good? This is _your_ department," he growled. The others stared at him, unable to comprehend the sudden flourish of anger in his voice, but he simply stared at Shin. Toraneko and the other girls were silent, as was Duo and Quatre. I think they understood the dire consequences of making Heero angry at a time like this. Of course, he was already angry, but that's beside the point.

"The Holder of Power is...um..." Shin suddenly was uncomfortable. My mother growled at him, still upset. "There are very few holders of power. Each of them has a purpose; they, in general, determine the fate of their dimension."

"What do you mean by _that_?!" I shouted incredulously. What in the world was he talking about? _What_ power? Was I really the holder? And how "few" of people like me were there?

He smiled, as though reading my mind. It was then that I realized it; he _could_ read my mind. He could read each and every thought, conscious or unconscious, that came from inside me. 

He knew all along Toraneko had a crush on him. 

Knew all along that Heero was no ordinary teacher.

All along that there was more to me than meets the eye.

Kai Shin knew more than he was letting on. His smile grew wider and he gave a silent nod, as though we were having a private conversation between our eyes. Which, in a sense, we were.

"I'm not sure what the power is that you possess, Siri," he told me uncertainly. "But I do know this; you're no ordinary girl."

"Well, duh, Sherlock, we knew that one straight from the start," Tari snapped at him. "And just how many of these so-called 'holders' are there in this world?"

"At this precise moment?" he asked, thinking a moment. "Two. And both of which stand before us at this very moment. He still has not yet made himself known, but he will soon."  
Silence as all swallowed hard at the prospect. Five men, all ex-Gundam pilots, were the only ones who would qualify for this. Trowa, Quatre, Heero, Duo, or Wufei...one of them was the other holder.

My throat contracted on itself, making it hard to breath. This was destiny, pure and simple. I'd never really believed in fate or destiny, but this episode had shown me the truth. I just hoped that destiny would prove itself well.

***

~~~

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THEY'VE ESCAPED?!" snarled Rem at Vince Ravioli Caprice and Deer Waterweed, both of whom were sorely disappointed they'd let down their master.

"Just as we said it," Waterweed clipped. "They escaped. No clue how. One second they're there, the next, _poof!_ gone."

"We'll get them back," Rem growled. "Have you managed to find the mistress? Or our partner?"

"We've found the mistress. She is close to our quarries," Caprice answered, glad to answer _something_ with an affirmative. 

"Our partner has hidden himself among the ex-Gundam pilots," Waterweed also answered. "But we are uncertain of which he is."   
Rem collapsed into his throne chair with a flyaway sigh. 

"Pinpoint them both. I want it known who they are inhabiting. And where they are hiding." 

"Right away, sir," both bowed and left their master. 

Rem gave a lazy wave of his hand, where appeared a scepter of violet and deepest red. (AN-Two of my most despised colors.) He stared into the violet crystal on the end of the elaborately-designed staff, toying with it slightly. 

"I will find you again, my love, and we will be together for eternity, side by side as the ultimate rulers of this dimension..." he started chuckling, but was abruptly cut off by sudden flapping of wings. His own spy flew up to him, soaring on golden wings.

"Hera, darling, what did you see?" he asked the peregrine falcon maiden. The falcon was no more, and in her place was a beautiful young girl with long, pink hair and wide, orange eyes. She was scarcely dressed, with only scraps of red cloth covering the bare minimum of her pale, moon-white skin. In short, she was sexy. (AN- "...sexy is dangerous..."--Christopher Hart, _Manga Mania_)

"The English teacher was in fact the god Shin in disguise. He has proclaimed that one of the five ex-Gundam pilots is a holder, as well as Siri, the known. Our partner and the mistress is among their group, though not necessarily a pilot."  
"Good. Anything else?"

"It appears Siri's powers will be at their strongest when she believes she has a chance. Otherwise, she is no match for you, milord."  
"Good, good, very good," the tips of his fingers formed ninety degree angles as they crossed. "At least that bungling fool did something right."

"I agree, sir."  
"Nothing else?"

"No."  
"You may go."

***


	8. Chapter 8

~~~

"Should we go to school?" I asked anxiously, shifting from foot to foot that Monday morning. "I would like to-"  
"It would be too suspicious if we didn't," Shin explained abruptly. "We have to." I let out a sigh of relief and began to pull on my jacket. I wanted to go. Tari gave a firm tug on my hood, choking me in the process.

"Siri, there is no way you're going to wear that stupid thing today," she scowled at me. "Today, you wear it off."  
"But Tari...my face-"  
"-looks fine," Telex finished. "Rem did one good thing; you don't have even a bruise on your face from that punch your father dealt you."

"Yeah," Raine chipped in, but I could tell she was worried. She wasn't talking nearly as much as she usually did (which still wasn't much, but still). 

Telex was silent, but she wasn't nervous. For some reason, she seemed almost like Trowa; silent, but still putting in her two cents when she felt like it.

It was Quatre and Duo that really got people, though. Both of them were so silent, it was as though they weren't even there. (AN-No, I did not forget them.) The Arabian and American boys were neither their chipper, joking selves, nor were they brooding and thoughtful. Just simply...quiet and unresponsive.

Oh, well, it was their choice, really. Heero made everyone wear bullet-proof vests under their clothes, just as a precaution. But it was one I gladly followed.

Since we were living so far away from the school (well, three miles, a short walk for me), the boys decided to drive us. Heero made me leave early, to get a small exercise before school in the gym. He intensified my "training" due to the circumstances. At least I was in good enough shape that I didn't lose my breath after the first ten sit-ups now.

He was just now teaching me how to "spar". It was a great deal more than just fighting an opponent, I had soon found out. You can't aim to demobilize; only to stun. You had to make sure that your strikes did not harm the other. Most of the time, if not all, you had to be either offense or defense. If you were offense, you had to make sure that you struck slowly enough that the other saw it. In defense, you had to make sure you caught the strike.

Basic things like that, really. It was this "fine" morning that I got my bright idea. What if you put a spar to dance? Wasn't dance sometimes considered a kata, if used properly? I presented my idea in between blocking (I was defense) Heero's attacks.

"Break," he muttered after I'd made my proposal. "It may work."

"So could we do it?"

"May work."

"Yeah, I heard. Could we do it, then?"

"Um..."  
Heero's face had suddenly gone pink. Not cherry red or plum, just pink. But it was the most embarrassed I'd ever seen the Perfect Soldier be.

"W-What's wrong?" I asked him. "Are you all right? Do you have a fever or something?"

He mumbled something inaudible.

"What's that? I can't hear you."

"I-can't-dance," he said very, very, very quickly, and very softly. I blinked. I did not laugh, which was probably what he was expecting. I don't know why I didn't. Usually, I would have laughed at something so simple.

"That's easily solved. I can teach you. I'm not exactly the best, but I'm decent." 

His face still flushed, he gave a single curt nod and we returned to our spar, this time with me on offense.

***

"...and that's how Marimeia Khushrenada was defeated by the Gundam Pilots and Ms. Releena Peacecraft," "Harding" finished his lecture. I took notes over the entire thing, secretly marveling over the fact that he spoke of himself while he was doing this, and yet managed not to gloat over it or anything. Only a man with great pride in himself, not his achievements, could do such a thing. The bell rang suddenly and I began packing up.

"An essay is due at the beginning of class tomorrow over our lecture today," he informed the class. Tari and I exchanged a look and waited until the rest of the class filed out before approaching Heero. 

"Do you think we're being tabbed?" Tari asked anxiously. I knew she didn't want to head to her meeting with Shin alone, but she would have to.

"It's not necessary," Heero stated.

"Shin said this morning that they had no need to. Though why, I dunno," I shrugged. "I'll see you in Shin's class in an hour and a half. See ya later." Tari left, still stiffly walking away. I watched her go, then pulled out a boom box out of my book bag. Heero tried to stifle a moan as he saw it was much the same as the one he walked in on every morning.

"Oh, quit your griping," I snapped. "I don't listen to rap or hip-hop. I like pop/rock." (AN-I know people say it's stupid, but I like the lyrics to a lot pop/rock songs. I'm an eclectic; I'll listen to anything with a good beat or lyrics, or both. Just don't try and hand me country!)

Heero did stop complaining about it, but that did not mean he relaxed. Far from it. He was so stiff as my music began to play that he looked like a robot. Stiffer than gundamium alloy, even, which I knew was what the Gundams were made from.

__

"You keep me from going crazy..." 

The music had a simple beat, a one-two-three-four. It was titled _Going Crazy_, by a semi-new group called Plus One. One of my favorites, one of the few CDs I owned, in all reality. Perfect for a beginner in dance.

"All right, Heero, loosen up," I soothed him gently. He relaxed noticeably, but no where near enough to dance properly. Leaving him be, I began instructing, hoping the music would loosen his tense muscles.

"Okay, pay attention to the music," I told him. "Move your feet. Just back and forth, step from side to side, loosely." He tried what I was telling him, but failed miserably. A simple back and forth step, too. We had a lot of work to do.

"Stop, stop, stop," I ordered him. He froze instantly, his back stiffer than ever before. "Heero, you've got to relax. The music isn't gonna hurt you."  
He nodded.

"Okay, let's try sitting down instead," I sighed. I pulled out his chair and set it up, sitting down. He watched like the falcons on the street as I slouched thoughtfully. My back against the black back; one leg stretched, the other barely holding me into the seat.

"See that?" he nodded. "Now you try it." He nodded and sat down as I stood. He sat straight up, firm and proper.

"No, no, slouch, Heero...like those guys in class. You've seen them..."

***

"...hop, hop, back right, spin, fake left, right, point left," I finished with a point out. Heero watched me, then stood as the track restarted. (_Another Earthquake_ by Aaron Carter.)

..._All the things in my room_

I break break break

All the people around

They shout

Not another earthquake!

He still couldn't do it. Poor guy was such a furious shade of magenta, I couldn't help but worry about the Perfect-not-perfect Soldier.

"Heero, if it's too much, we can try another song," I said gently.

"..."

"Are you gonna answer me?" I scowled.

"I left you no mercy. It is my turn."

My eyes widened. You had to hand it to the guy; when he found something to do, he didn't let it go.

"All right," I threw up my hands and sat him down quickly. "Watch me for a whole song. See if you can find what you're doing wrong."

"Hn."

__

I give my life away

Now it's time to play

I live by the choice I made

This is what I choose

I don't wanna lose

And it's time...make my move

'Cause you know better than I

I can, ya know, try to 

Never do without you

You know more than I could

I can never run deaf

You wanna give me

I go crazy

I can't pretend that I need you

With all the stuff in my life

I just dunno what to do

Every time I'm afraid

Of what's in front of me

You keep me from going crazy

Show's done, but the 

Tape keeps rolling

Can't push stop

'Cause my life is recording

All this pressure

Keeps on pressing

You keep me from

Going crazy

I got through the first verse and chorus before it began to happen. My foot-stamps were matched by another's. Perfectly. Absolutely, blessedly, unbelievably perfectly. I looked up to see Heero, the one I had first thought might be an escaped angel, matching every step, every movement like a fluid mirror, every move perfection.

I stopped abruptly, as did Heero. 

"H-How...H-Heero...h-how di-did that just...happen?" I asked, my eyes narrowed at him in pure confusion, but still purposefully. How _had_ he just done that? A few moments ago, he was absolutely wretched at any move I gave him, only just mastering two-stepping. He gave a very small, but very clear _smile_ and said something most peculiar.

"I don't know, Capri. But I know one thing; I like it."

***

"And he just stood there like that?" Telex asked, an eyebrow raised. I was speaking with my four friends, Trowa, and Wufei. Both boys' eyebrows (yes, even Trowa) had shot to their hairline in shock. 

"Let me get this straight," Toraneko stated bewilderedly. "You were trying to teach him how to dance, and he wasn't doing very well. One minute he can barely two-step and the next he's matching your moves stride for stride? Then he just stands there smiling?"

"Heero Yuy, smiling?" Wufei and Trowa exchanged a look.

"What, I know he doesn't actually smile all that often, but surely in all the time you've known him, he's smiled at least once before?" Raine asked, absolutely beyond baffled. The grave looks on the two boys' faces told otherwise. "That's impossible!"

"The only time he's ever truly smiled was right before a fight," Wufei shook his head. "And he's more scary when he gets like that than a thousand mobile suits."  
"I thought the governments all agreed not to manufacture any more mobile suits," Tari chose her words carefully.

"They did. It's one of the job of the Preventers to destroy any that are created," Trowa explained. 

"It's Winner and Maxwell I'm worried about," Wufei muttered. "It's not like either of them to be this quiet. And Peacecraft as well."  
"Yeah, I'm worried about Releena, too," Telex looked back toward the living room, where our teacher and friend was watching the news like an eagle. "She seems quieter after being attacked. As though she were trying to hide something."  
"But what?" I asked. "What could Releena possibly want to hide from us? She already told us one of her greater secrets; that she knew the Gundam pilots."  
"Actually, that was Heero's doing," Tari said, thinking hard. "If you think about it, she has hidden a lot from us and only told us things when they could no longer be left unexplained."

"You're right..." Toraneko scowled. "But you guys, why would Releena want to hide something from us?"

"I dunno," I shrugged. "This whole thing is confusing me."

"Me too," Tari sighed, sinking back into a chair. Heero passed by us and I pulled him over by his shirt sleeve.

"Hey, Heero, why don't we show the others what you learned today?" I asked.

"W-What?" he stammered. There was no doubt about it; the Perfect Soldier was shaken.

"Come on," I pulled his arm and plugged in the boom box again. The others turned to watch and I smirked. This was going to be a riot.

__

...

I can't pretend that I need you

With all the stuff in my life

I just dunno what to do

Every time I'm afraid

Of what's in front of me

You keep me from going crazy

Show's done, but the 

Tape keeps rolling

Can't push stop

'Cause my life is recording

Step, step, back, forward, spin, punch, swing, wave, he matched each move to each beat with a perfection seen only in rock videos. The others were applauding by the time the music stopped.

"You go, guys!" Tari flashed us both thumbs-up. "Wow, that was _so_ awesome, I can't believe anyone can do that to pop anymore."

***


	9. Chapter 9

~~~

Rem was not a happy demon. Demons were used to pain, havoc, and respect. If they did not get all three, they weren't happy. (AN-Good, demons aren't supposed to be happy!) Not only had it been a while since he'd killed, but he was getting anxious of getting the holders again. He was sure if he didn't, he would be unsuccessful in his quest for universal domination.

"My sweet, is there any updates on your progress?"  
"Well...somehow Siri's managed to teach Heero how to dance, but other than that, nothing, sir. Our partner and the mistress have hidden themselves well. But we have narrowed it down to four suspects, so to speak."  
"And they are?" he snapped, getting impatient.

"Telex Vega, Duo Maxwell, Quatre Winner, and Releena Peacecraft. We are uncertain whether or not to add Wufei Chang to that list, but he is being watched as well."

"Why are they suspected, Hera?"

"Actions do not compute with the norm of their character."

"Ah. Well done. If any ever come out alone, capture them. We will wait. Patience is one of a demon's most greatest ally, after all."

"Yes, sir," she bowed and was gone.

Rem gave a mind-racking sigh. He had lied to Hera. His patience was wearing thin, and grew thinner with each hour that passed. Running his thin, bony fingers through his red hair, he slumped deeper into his seat. 

This was going to be a long day.

***

~~~

__

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Siri

Happy Birthday to you

I blushed a crimson red as the others finished singing. The eighth of February had come and I hadn't even realized it was my birthday until the others dragged me into the kitchen, where a cake was well-frosted in periwinkle blue. Even Duo and Quatre, who had been so silent lately, had sung. 

"Come on, Siri, blow out the candles!" Tari shouted from the end of the table. "Bet you can get them all out!"

"Yeah, make a wish, Siri!" Toraneko beamed at me.

"And hope it comes true!" Raine grinned. Telex smiled brightly and said to me the most peculiar thing.  
"I think it _will_ come true, Siri!"

"All right," I nodded defiantly at the cake. "You candles there! Listen up!" I gloated over the cake, false seriousness dripping from me. "Each of you will go out upon my whistle. One...two...three..." I took the deepest of deep breaths and blew every single one of the navy blue candles out, making a silent wish. One that I had realized had become my goal after seeing the Perfect Soldier smile. The others laughed at my antics, even as I completed the wish I made so solemnly within my head.

__

I wish to be the one to make Heero Yuy laugh.

After that, well...time seemed to slow down, so very, very slow. Never in my life had my birthday been so celebrated, so held together, so...peaceful and full of joy. Previous birthdays for me had always seemed dull, as though it were just another day. Another day, another place to try and be, away from my father.

"Come on, Siri, open the presents!" Telex jumped up and down and up and down, over and over again. It was a mistake to give her cake and ice cream. Sugar was not the best thing to give to her. She'd gone from being a solemn entity to a bouncing five-year-old. (AN-No offense, Telex!)

We all laughed at her antics. All, that is, except Heero. I wished I could make him at least smirk tonight. That ever-present scowl was getting on my nerves.   
"All right, all right, everyone, settle down," my mother smiled at us all. I was so glad to have my mother back after all this time. She handed me the first present.

"Siri, don't be disappointed, okay?" Tari said nervously. "We had to make this stuff from things we-"  
"Don't worry about it, Tari, I perfectly understand," I gave her a half-grin. "Anything you guys give me is a blessing on my heart." (AN-I wish I could remember to say this to my friends. Makes me sound so wise, eh?) Giving a tug on the Christmas paper (we hadn't anything else), I gave a gasp of surprise and pleasure. 

A bracelet. It was so gorgeous, there was no other way to describe it. Somehow, she had shaped stones picked up from the yard into ten trinkets. It was obvious that they represented my closest friends. 

They were as follows: An indigo sword (Tari [her full name, Hawatari, means "walking on edge" in Japanese]), a violet kitty (Toraneko [means "tiger cat"), an amber watch (Telex [is gleaned from Rolex [the watch]], but Telex came up with it first!!! She should sue!), a blue raindrop (Raine), a toffee-colored coffee cup with a chocolate brown braid hanging from it (Duo, who else?), a minute dragon (Wufei) (AN-Sources say Wufei means little dragon, but I cannot say for certain), a blue yin-yang (Quatre, though why is beyond me), a green circus mask (Trowa), a silver pendant much like the one around my neck (my mother), and a tiny onyx gun (Heero). 

"Oh, Tari...wow...did you really make this yourself?" She giggled, then nodded impishly. I slid the beautiful string onto my left wrist, grinning still, a blush across my cheeks. 

Trowa and Duo gave Wufei a nudge forward and he mumbled something inaudible. I made no inquiries, simply watched him, my eyes large and innocent.

"I made this for you," he finally spoke up, his face very heated. "Yuy can teach you how to wield it." He pulled a long, thin package from behind his back. My eyes went extremely wide as I saw what it was.

"A-A katana," I stuttered, tears in my eyes. Never in my life had I been given such a precious gift of skill. The hilt glittered with several blue gems, sapphires, as I was later told. The blade was perfect, made of silvery gundanium alloy from the remains of Wufei's own Nataku. I couldn't have been more proud than to thank the poor boy.

"Use it well," he gave a curt nod, then retreated back into the shadows. I swallowed hard and resheathed the sword, placing it gently on the table.

The others gave me things as well, wonderful things that I'd never have expected. Telex gave me my first pair of pants that _weren't_ blue or black (khakis) that she'd made herself, with a _lot_ of help from Toraneko and Raine, I later found out. They'd all pitched in to make me a complete outfit, Toraneko with a shirt (it said _Siri_ in green paint across the front) and Raine with a jacket. I think the others had learned that I didn't like not wearing jackets, even after all my bruises had faded away.

Duo, though what on God's green earth possessed him to, gave me a leather belt, complete with pockets made for carrying all sorts of weapons, including, but not limited to, knives, swords (I easily placed Wufei's katana in one), guns, and, for some odd reason, a place specially built for Shurin (AN-I don't know the proper spelling on that. Help!) Throwing Stars. On the front was carved a beautiful wolf's head.

The last three were Heero, Quatre, and Releena, who was finally able to get around in a wheelchair. Releena and Quatre, it seemed, had been planning for this far ahead of time and had gotten together to order something from a catalog. They said it would be down soon.

At last, only Perfect Soldier remained. What would he give me? Would he give me anything at all? For some reason, that depressed me far worse than even the prospect of being in my father's "care" for three more years. The others all stared at him expectantly, but I stared at the ground, neither expecting nor anticipating something. He had saved me from my father. That was enough for me.

He smirked at this, though I did not see it. Pulling a box from behind him, he made his way toward me and held it out. The others leaned in, solemn. What could the Perfect Soldier possibly give me that everyone was reverently waiting for?

The box was quite heavy, for I nearly dropped it as he gave it to me. Inside, I found several items, all quite different from each other. 

The first was a simply non-photo blue bow, perfect for securing my chocolate hair. A CD player was next, with several packs of accompanying batteries and a new CD with pretty good music on it, as far as I knew. A silvery harmonica, which I slid into my jeans pocket easily. The last struck a chord within me, making me wonder why on Earth Heero had given me such a thing.

A gun. Not just any old gun, either. Well, it was old, but it was a very good model. It was a one-of-a-kind firearm, used only by Heero Yuy, pilot of Gundam Wing Zero himself. The gun he had wielded so many times when he had been required to leave his trusty Wing Zero. I looked up at him and saw he was quite torn about giving it to me in the first place.

"Heero...this is...this is your gun...isn't it?" My voice was wavering so much, I was surprised he'd understood what I'd said.

"Yours," he grunted.

"But Heero-"  
"Yours." 

He left no room for argument. None at all. I sighed and slipped the gun into my new belt. This party was officially over.

"Heero, follow me," I commanded, standing. "You guys stay here. I want to talk to him alone."

The other remained in perfect silence as I stalked out of the room, Heero two feet behind me, directly on my heels. My treacherous feet carried me out of the house and into the garden, where Releena's flowers were far from coming up. The holly and fir trees, however, were quite well still abloom, as they never slept when the winter came. Once there, I turned around abruptly, glad Heero had such good reactions, as he stopped.

Just for an instant, time stopped. I stared into his eyes with my green ones and he stared straight back, his blues quivering. He knew what was up.

"Just what are you doing, Heero?" I resounded softly, breaking the silence I so much wanted to break, not with a refusal, but a kiss. It did not happen that way. "I'm no soldier, I shouldn't wield weapons at all. You'll get me into trouble with all this stuff on me. I know you're not the only one, but-"  
"Shhhh..." Heero pressed a finger, a rough, calloused finger, to my lips, silencing me at once. "You won't get into trouble."  
"What do you mean, I won't get into trouble?!" I shrieked, pulling away from his enticing hand. It may have quieted my fears before, but this was much more than just a simple worry of my own well-being. I worried for my friends' safety as well. "I've still gotta go to school, I can't exactly leave these things lying around the house, either!"

"Listen," he said again. "When I was young, I used to live with a man named Odin. He taught me everything I've ever known. None of it included any emotions or moral upbringings."  
"Is that why you're so monotonous?" I cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me now?"

"I trust you won't tell," he answered. "I trust you more than I trust myself with that gun. I feel as though I'll go crazy at any moment and start shooting Duo and Quatre and the others..."

"Heero..." Talk about surprises. Since when did he start feeling this way? Since when did he feel anything? Since when did he trust me enough to tell me, of all people, these things? "I know you well enough to know this: You do care about your friends, even though you don't always show it. You aren't perfect, Heero, nobody is."

"Just the perfect killer," he muttered bitterly. A gasp caught itself in my throat.

"Don't you dare say that!" I shouted at him, unmitigated fury bearing out of me. Another gasp came, this one different. I'd just yelled. Yelled. Screamed. My head began to spin. Never had I shouted out of anger. Never had I truly been angry. Crazy as it seemed, I'd just never had to need to scream.

And now that it was out, I couldn't take it back. My lips trembled as I backed away slowly, my teeth chattering from the cold and the fear I felt of my own self. I tossed the gun into the snow and tripped over a twisted tree root. Picking myself up, I dashed off as fast as my two legs could carry me.

~~~

Heero watched as Siri was set stuttering from her own outburst. She looked like himself, long ago. Back when Mariemeia had been threatening what unstable peace the pilots and Treize had managed to scrounge together. Right when he had fought Wufei and had suddenly given up, sinking into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

When he'd seriously been considering opening the hatch and allowing the crushing weight of the water kill him before it even flooded into his beloved Zero.

He raced back to the house, picking up the gun as he went, tucking it into his pants pocket. He grabbed a large coat, answering none of the others' frantic questions, with the exception of one.

"Where'd Siri go?" Tari shouted, practically going ballistic. She'd asked him at least a half dozen times before he answered.

"I think she's going to kill herself," he answered in monotone, racing out the door, gone before the words ever fully registered.

~~~

Chattering as my teeth were, I took refuge in the dark library, not truly caring where I really was, but taking pleasure in the fact that the place was left open for homeless people. Finding a librarian, I asked a sheet of paper and a pencil, then sat down to write a farewell letter for Heero when he found me. 

I had discovered something about myself in my race against time to flee away from Heero. Figured it all out. I loved him. I was in love with Heero Yuy. But no, I would not be here to claim him. He would find a girl here when he came, all right. But she would not be alive. I sat down, and, using one of my few talents, wrote him a letter:

__

Dear Heero,

I know you will find me crazy and a bit stupid for doing this, but I have no choice. My life is no longer my own; it belongs to those demons. I live in fear, and fear is not something that should be lived in. Maybe this will help:

Forgive me, for I am young

I have no control over my tongue

It speaks without my will

Bloodthirsty, it wants to kill

Destroy, destroy, destroy

That is its ploy

This tongue that lashes out

With a yell, a scream, a shout

Forgive me, Perfect Soldier mine

Though you spoke not a word, I read your sign

Through your perfect blue eyes

I can read all of your lies

You gave me reason to live

So I ask, please forgive

Time halted just once, it did

Yet I sealed myself, holding the lid

Forgive me

Forgive me

For I am young

And I have no power of my own tongue

Forgive me

Toss me to the sea

Please, Heero, forgive me

I will no longer burden you. Thank you for all that you've done for me. I'll meet you in eternity. Sayonara.

Reading over the letter, I decided it was best to leave it with my things; I wouldn't need them later. Taking off my jacket, bracelet, pendant, and socks and shoes and leaving the letter on top, plainly saying _Heero_, I ducked back outside. The new belt I had been give was still in place, and I was ready to meet my fate.

Making certain that no one was around, I unsheathed the sword once again, plopping down in the snow, my feet and legs now frozen. Raising the sword's blade to my wrist, I sighed, ready for the pain. A sickening noise cut through the deepest night as dark red blood spurted from the new wound. I lay my head in the drift of snow, waiting for the true Shinigami to come and take me away forever.

~~~

Racing against hope and hoping against faith, Heero ran. Never had he run so fast. He knew he had only a matter of moments behind Siri, and those moments were eating away quickly. Heero could run faster than Siri, but he had been stunned by her sudden tirade of sadness. 

What had happened? Siri's bruises had begun clearing up, her mother was there, her friends were all safe. What had happened to that happy-go-lucky girl who never stopped smiling? Where was that smile now? Why had she run away like that?

He had a pretty good idea what she was going to do, regardless. Why else would she have brought the katana with her and left the gun?

But why?

(AN-I may not have made it clear before, so I'm gonna say it now. Nobody, not even Heero, has figured out that it was her _father_ that gave her the bruises. Yeah, they're pretty dense. But then again, so am I!)

Heero ran still faster, his legs screaming in protest as the combination of cold and extreme pressure made them quite painful. Not caring about himself at the moment, he urged his legs to move faster.

Finally seeing the one place he thought she would go, he raced up the library steps. He 

immediately spotted the stack of her things, but ignored them. They just proved to him his suspicions. He ran for the back door, and saw what he could clearly state was the most frightening thing he'd ever seen in his life.

"Siri!" he screamed, not caring about his soldier mask any longer. He only knew one thing; get Siri to a doctor, and fast.

***


	10. Chapter 10

~~~

"What do you mean, she killed herself?!" shouted Rem.

"She _tried_ to. Yuy interfered." Waterweed corrected. 

"Why didn't you grab her then?" Rem snarled.

"Sir, even demons have to follow a code, if you've forgotten," Caprice replied coolly. "She tried to kill herself and her soul mate tried to save her life. Demons aren't allowed-"  
"I know the code, Caprice," Rem stated sharply. "Very well. If any of the others are found alone, nab them."  
"Yes, sir," both bowed and escaped the room.

~~~

So this was the Spirit World. I guess. Whitewash walls, bright lights, bustling all about. This seemed more like a hospital. People rushed by on either side of me, taking my temperature, checking my pulse, wrapping my arm. A sudden shoot of pain made me cry out. Wait a moment! Pain? 

"She's awake!" cried someone joyously.

So I wasn't dead. Joy. This was going to be hard to explain.

"Leave," said a cold but familiar voice. 

"But Mr. Yuy, she needs to rest and-"  
"I said 'leave'. Or do you not understand English?" Heero's voice was perfect monotone. Just peachy.

"Y-Yes, sir, M-M-Mr. Y-Yuy," stammered the doctor. I had a bad feeling that Heero had the gun pointed at him. I heard the door shut, making a sudden stab of pain reverberate through my head. Oh...what a headache.

"Capri?" Heero's voice had suddenly gone softer. "Are you all right?"

"Hell no," I murmured, my eyes still closed against the light. It was gone not three seconds afterward.

"Try to open your eyes, Capri."

"I just want to die, Heero," I moaned, opening my eyes to mere slits. "Will you just let me die?"

"No. I will not," he scowled at me. "You have every right to live, Capri, it's me who deserves to die."  
"That's not true," I grumbled, attempting to sit up. Using my good arm, I propped myself up and stared at him, my eyes still screwed to slits. "You killed out of honor."

"You've never killed anyone, no one," Heero shook his head. "As far as I know, you've had a pretty good life."  
"Good?" my eyes went from narrow to wide in a nanosecond. "You consider being considered a boy and being ignored and then being raped and beaten a _good life_?!" My bewilderment was beyond comprehension.

"I know being considered a bo-did you say rape?!" There was a note of panic in his voice.

"Duh," I scowled. "You didn't figure that one out?"

He blushed.

"It's inevitable," I sighed. "No one truly cares about what happens to me. If things had gone through, the others would have mourned me for a few days, then went back to their semi-normal lives. And it's not like you guys care about what happens, either."

Heero blinked several times.

"Capri, we all care about you. How can you think something like that? It's me who doesn't have anyone who truly cares about me. They all think I'm a gun-crazy psychopath."  
"You _are_ a gun-crazy psychopath, but there's no way they don't care," I growled at him. "Give me one person who cares about me, just one that you can name off and give a good, solid reason."

Heero seemed to think about this a moment.  
"Ha!" I shouted in bitter triumph. "You see? No one-"  
"I care."

I stopped short.

"How can you care about someone as lowly as I?" I snarled. "You barely know your emotions on other people's faces, let alone decide what your own feelings are."  
"I don't know what..." he continued, ignoring my words. He seemed deep in thought. "I can't explain it, nor predict it...and yet. Yet every time I see you, I get this warm feeling in my heart, as though you set me on fire on the inside."

"As though time itself can stop just for us to see the other..." I whispered under my breath.

"As though time itself can stop just for us to see the other," he said, but he couldn't have repeated it.

My stomach did a flip-flop. What was going on? I knew I loved Heero, but why do his simple words send me over the edge, yet calm me like nothing I'd ever known before? He sat down on the bed, right next to me, still thinking, muttering things under his breath now.

I pulled my legs out from beneath the covers and winced as I sat down properly next to him, trying to hear what he was saying. Yet right beside him, I still couldn't tell what. His eyes were closed, his eyebrows furrowed furiously in thought, his messy umber hair messier than usual. I could tell I'd been here at least a few hours, because he must have dosed off.

The way his lips were moving, though...I wondered. I wondered how his lips would taste. He was always so stiff and proper, so I suspected they may taste of mint, like toothpaste. Seeing his hair, I wanted nothing more than to run my fingers through his gentle locks. Feeling weary, I settled my head on his shoulder and immediately, he shut up.

"Capri?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"Are you all right?"

"My arm hurts like hell."

He chuckled. "It will, crazy baka." It suddenly struck me that he'd laughed. Not all out, but still.

"Hey, Heero?" I asked him slyly. "What would happen to Duo if Wufei ever actually _did_ cut his braid off?"  
"I dunno."

"Duo would become normal and Wufei would suddenly find himself cornered by a very peeved Shinigami."

It wasn't nearly as funny as I had thought it would be, but Heero still laughed. It was music, sweet, bass music to my ears. I wanted to hear more. I do wonder...is Heero Yuy ticklish? I swung an arm around him and ran my fingers on his side ever so slightly. He didn't laugh, but I suddenly found a powerful arm around my waist as well. 

"Heero?"

"Hn?"

"Do you really care about me?"

"More."  
"How much more?" 

"Can I show you?" I hesitated at that. Would Heero go too far? As far as I knew, he wouldn't, but I didn't know him as well as I'd like. Then I stopped to think. I loved Heero. Why did it matter if he went too far? It wasn't like I wasn't already tainted.

"You may."

Heero leaned in on me, searching my green eyes with his blue orbs, as though searching for a lost soul among hundreds. Closer and closer he came, slowly, slower, millimeters at a time. He closed the last three inches in an instant, placing a short, quick butterfly kiss on my lips. The electricity it caused sent waves of chills down my spine. My stomach felt as though there were a billion butterflies inside, all bursting to be released.

Another kiss, another shock wave. I had as of yet to truly taste him. His lips were soft and smooth and absolutely wonderful against mine, in nanoseconds of time. His third kiss stayed longer, short, sweet, and chaste. 

A fourth left me in the dust as the kiss continued, no longer short, but still so sweet. So very sweet. I had been wrong; he tasted like strawberries. Sweet, home-picked strawberries, eaten right off the bush. He smelled like roses for some reason, but what, I didn't care. 

The kiss was finally broken and I leaned against Heero.

"I love you, Heero," I whispered, finally screwing up my courage.

He paused a moment before answering, in the words I'd never thought I'd hear from anyone, let alone the one I'd once thought to be a lost angel. "I love you too, Siri." He'd finally said my first name.

I fainted once again.

***

"Siri!!!!" Seven voices chorused immediately when Heero carried her into the house, fast asleep. 

"Heero, what the hell happened?!" Telex shouted.

"You mean what the-"  
"Tari!" Raine stopped her before she said something she regretted. 

"Just shut up and let the man talk," Toraneko finally broke in. Silence fell.

"She tried to kill herself."

Gasps rang out.

"Heero...why?" Raine finally choked out.

"Not certain," he gave a very slight shrug. How could he tell them that she did it right after she yelled at him? That she tried because she had been defiled and destroyed in ways that even he couldn't completely understand.

"Take her to her room, Heero," Tari stated calmly, being the only one who knew Siri well enough to know that she had plenty of reasons. The only one wise enough to do the right thing in this sort of crisis. "We'll figure this out later, after she's gotten her strength back."

Heero gave a single curt nod and made for her room, settling her into the warm sheets. Pausing but a moment, he grabbed her desk chair and sat down next to her. He made his decision abruptly, one he knew was wise. He would never leave her side again.

***

"Why on Earth would Siri try something like that?" Telex's voice trembled. She had seen friends leave through death one too many times, and as close as Siri had come to kissing death was far more than she wanted to think about. 

Tari wrapped her arms around herself. Siri had been her friend for such a short time. Before herself and the others, Siri had never had any friends. She had always told her that. 

Telex's lips were in a tight, thin line, one the others doubted would come back to smiling any time soon. The young girl was far more worried about Siri than she planned to release. She looked up at Toraneko, who rocked back and forth nervously on her toes, standing beside Shin as though he would protect her from anything, even the mighty Shinigami himself.

Raine was no where to be found, but the others knew quite well where both she and Trowa were. It was easily told; both were with Heero, watching over the silent Siri.

Quatre and Duo remained silent as ever.

A sudden ringing noise broke them all out of the silent reverie that had overcome them. They looked to Shin, who was answering what seemed to be a cell phone. Why did a god have a cell phone?

"Yes, I understand," he said after a moment, then hung up gravely. "We've got another problem. Apparently another demon escaped unnoticed while we were still chasing the five we knew about. So there were six instead."  
"This is so frustrating!" Une shouted, punching the wall in anger. "What the hell do they want with us?! With Siri!? Why need a Holder of Power when she herself doesn't even know she has it or how to use it?!"

"Ashley, please, calm down," Tari said to Siri's mother. "It's not helping any of-"  
Laughter. Duo, Quatre and Releena were...laughing. Why were they laughing?

"Such fools these humans are," Releena finally said, chuckling under her breath. "So little do they know of their own ally."  
"What do we do to humans, mistress?" asked Duo, eyeing the others with a playful smirk.

"Yes, mistress, what shall we do?" Quatre followed suit.

Eyes widened in sudden terror. 

"The demons!" Wufei hissed, backing away from them. "They've inhabited Maxwell, Winner, and Peacecraft!"

"Run!" Tari shouted.

"No," Toraneko growled. "We stand our ground. They won't get us, not as long as they inhabit our friends. Duo, Quatre, and Releena will fight them."  
"They've _been_ fighting us," Quatre smirked, looking almost bored. "It was quite a nuisance for a while, but now that our plan has unfolded-"  
"-we will take you!" Duo finished. (AN-Oh! I wish I hadn't done this now! My baby's evil!)

"We'll hold them off," Wufei shouted, wielding his katana, followed by Shin's mass of energy as he powered up. "You go warn Yuy and the others!"

"I don't think so," Releena snarled, and the group was as suddenly surrounded, almost the instant her hand had lifted. A triangle of yellow light surrounded them, extending from each of six hands. Every person was gone in a flash of light, leaving only four of the original group.

***

~~~

When I finally came around again, I found three worried faces staring down at me. Well, one worried face; the other two were passive, but I could see the anxiety and then relief in their eyes when I finally opened mine. 

"Siri, finally, you're awake!" Raine cried. "Jeez, girl, don't scare us all like that. What on this crazy planet _happened_? One second you're fine, the next, we hear you tried to _kill _yourself!" Her breath was caught in her throat as I slowly sat up.

"Why's it so quiet?" I mumbled almost incoherently.

"Not sure," Heero grunted, looking toward the living room. 

"They stopped talking about an hour ago," Raine said, suddenly worried. "What if something happened? We completely forgot about the others!"

"Then let's go see," I said, rising. My arm still hurt, but I knew without a doubt it still would. Somehow, I also knew the others were no longer in the living room. Somehow, I knew exactly where they were. And I didn't like how I knew it without knowing it.

My breath caught in my throat as we walked into the empty room. Raine covered her mouth in horror.

"They have been taken."

***


	11. Chapter 11

~~~

"Put me down, you overgrown brute!" Toraneko yelled in the grasps of an enormous and quite ugly beast. It must not have heard her, or, if it had, didn't care. Telex and Tari were in similar conditions, as was Wufei. The Chinese boy was silent, as was Telex, but inwardly, they were shouting as loudly as TN and Tari.

The writer would like to inform her readers that she has a certain boundary in which she cannot elude her own words. Tari often oversteps these boundaries, to the point where she cannot repeat them. This is one of those times.

Simply put, Tari's words will not be quoted here. Let's just say that she was putting up quite the fight and would make many a sailor blush at her words.

Releena, Duo, and Quatre were no where to be found as of yet. However, the silent Shin and Une both knew that they would be encountering them soon enough, along with, most likely, Rem, Waterweed, and Caprice.

"They'll have to go back for Siri and Raine," Shin muttered under his breath to Une. "There are six of them. They need six tainted girls for their sacrifice. We have a little time."  
"Very little," Une said worriedly. Something struck her just then. "Why do they need girls who have _lost_ their virginity?"  
"Some sort of power is emitted from those who are still pure," Shin answered bitterly. "That power makes the demons unable to touch them. Once that power is released, however..." He let it hang. 

"Wait a moment," Telex said quietly. "There are five women here now, counting Releena. Why do they need _both _Siri and Raine?"

"I think they need Siri for her power," Shin answered as they reached an archway. "The rules are very complicated and very exact."

"Rules?" Wufei inquired, but Shin was cut off as they were all thrown, headfirst, into the dungeon-like room. As the god huffed and wheezed to sit, he began to answer.

"Yeah...demons have a...code they must follow, kinda like a barrier they can't break. Vampires have those kind of codes, too. I'm not entirely certain on the specifics, but I know they can't attack someone who has attempted suicide within twenty-four hours, nor those guarding them. So Siri is safe, for at least another twelve hours."

"Tell us all you know about their code," Tari demanded. "We might be able to use it."

"All right, let me think a moment..." Shin sat down to think. "They cannot break up a heart-to-heart fight between mortals, can't fall in love with a mortal, can't outright kill a mortal-"  
"Wait. Stop right there," Toraneko said. "They killed you, remember? And how are they gonna use us as sacrifices if they can't kill us?"

"They have animal forms they can take," Shin answered. "If they are in those forms, they can kill."   
"Then the ocelot..."

"And those falcons!" Wufei shouted. "Capri's house was covered with them!"  
"Yes, very so," Shin nodded. "Well, anyway, they also cannot interfere with true love. If they kill one, they've gotta kill the other. At the same time, too."  
"I've got an idea!" Telex whispered frantically. "They know some of us are in love. Why don't we pretend that we're in love with someone else that we know we're not?"  
"Because that also means they've gotta kill us first, Telex," Shin answered blandly.

Telex blushed a little.

"Anything else?" Tari pushed.

"Plenty, but nothing I can remember right off the bat. I know they're pretty similar to vampires when it comes to their code, but I just can't remember the proper way to fully kill a demon, yet keep the body they inhabit alive..."

"Well, try to think of it!" Tari snapped. "'Cause there's no way you're gonna kill Duo or Quatre! Even if Duo is an-"  
"Tari!" Toraneko stopped her.

"Sounding like Raine now," Tari muttered.

"Raine and Siri are our last hope, I'm afraid," Une sighed.

"Shin?" Toraneko asked him quietly. "Do you have any idea what Siri's power is? And who the other holder is?"

"I have been unable to determine her full power, no, I'm sorry," Shin smiled feebly. "But I have figured out who the other holder is."  
"Who?" came several voices.

"Heero Yuy."  
~~~

"This can't be good," Raine groaned, pounding her head hard against the wall. Trowa pulled her away from it, effectively stopping her from hurting herself again.

"No, Raine, this _isn't_ good," I sighed. "I figured out who the other demons were a little too late."  
"Who were they?" Heero asked.

"Duo, Quatre, and Releena," I answered softly. "I figured it out in my sleep. I have these strange dreams that I often forget before I even wake up. And then I find them again, most of the time too late."

"Makes sense," Trowa nodded. "What do we do?" 

"We go to the dimension where our friends are," I answered, more bravely than I felt. "And we rescue them." 

"But Siri, there are only four of us," Raine blanched.

"I couldn't care less if we were a hundred, Raine," I told her, determination plain on my pale, drawn face. "The few people who've ever cared about me are in danger. And so are we, if we allow it. I figured out what my power is, and who the other holder is."

"What? Who?" Heero asked.

"The power of perception, learning, and spiritual gathering," I replied, holding up my head. "And my fellow holder is the same. He stands right here before me, the pilot of Zero, the Wings of the Gundams."

"Siri..." Raine blinked at me reproachfully. "How do you know all that?"

"I don't know," I shook my head. "I just...know. And the scariest thing of all is that now that I know how to use my power, I will not stop using it."

"Let's go," Heero nodded. "We're gonna kick some demon butt."

***

Wufei gave an insane sort of laugh, bitter in his own right.

"Our worse fix yet, and the two people with the most problems are our last hope. How ironic can things get?" 

Telex gave a derisive snort and nodded her agreement.

"Now wait a minute here!" Toraneko shouted. "What do you mean, most problems? I agree Siri attempted suicide, but that doesn't mean she's got the most problems out of all of us! And what's Heero ever done to bring you to that conclusion?"

Wufei suddenly seemed quite nervous. And, as the only three people who would understand were either with said person or were possessed, he had no where to turn.

"Yes, I would like to know where that particular analysis came into play," Tari crossed her arms and glared at the raven-haired Chinese boy, who, at the moment, looked about as flustered as he could get. "Wu-man."

Now if _that_ didn't get to him, nothing could.

"Now see here, you impertinent woman-"  
"Just explain what you mean," Shin invested upon him. The mohawked god knew quite well that he was taking a gamble at interrupting the justice-and-honor-preaching boy.

"Fine," the boy took a deep, settling breath.

"Start with Siri," Tari hissed slowly. She was _not _a happy camper.

"I overheard Yuy speaking with her. In the gardens. Apparently she is...no longer pure."  
"What do you mean, 'no longer pure'?" Toraneko snarled, upholding her name quite well.

Une's breath, however, had caught in her throat. She knew quite well what he'd meant. Siri had told her almost too plainly what had happened. _...Mother, father's been the worst, I swear it upon all things sacred..._

If her daughter could swear such a thing, Une knew she had meant it. Suddenly, she felt very, very ill.

"Her father..." Wufei gulped, pale as the palest ghost. Had Duo been there as himself, he would have been clueless. But the others were not as dense and knew precisely what he spoke of long before he said any words.

"You can stop there, Wufei," Telex swallowed coarse bile within her throat. "Well, I think we found one of the many reasons Siri attempted to kill herself."

"But what about Heero?" Tari asked. 

"Yuy's been through too much to tell it all," Wufei said warily. "Yet one thing I can say is this; he was stripped of feelings. I remember something he said to me once, just before he allowed himself to be pulled into the Earth's Pacific Ocean. He asked me..." Telex put a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't think you should continue," she scowled. "I see your point on Siri. No point in telling things over again."

"I, too, think it is best," Shin nodded, followed very quickly by Toraneko. Then, as suddenly as the silence had begun again, Shin slapped his own forehead, as though suddenly recalling something. "I just remembered! The only way to exorcise a demon of this sort is..."

***

~~~

"Uh...Heero?" I said, shaking in silent mirth at his words. (AN-Kick some demon butt, if I recall correctly) "How are we supposed to get to...to the...to the other dimension?" I finally broke down and was sitting on the floor in roaring laughter, Raine beside me. Trowa and Heero exchanged a look and waited for us to finish, which took about...seven minutes and twenty-three seconds.

"We go the same way we went."

"Um...Heero? Shin opened that for us."  
"He taught me how."

"Oh."

Within seconds, we were going through the black hole again, riding the proverbial roller coaster that it was.

And landed right in the middle of a group of ugly beasts, about twice the height of a man and three times as wide. Their skin was the color of green parakeets, but these were _not_ cute little Australian-originating house pets. To basically describe what they looked like? Enormous dragons with black bird wings.

"Uh...Siri? Heero?" Raine stammered quietly, not moving an inch. "Was this part of the plan?"  
"Definitely _not_ part of the plan!" I snapped back, a waver of panic in my tone.

"What do you suggest we do?" Trowa asked calmly. My eyes widened on bang-boy. How could he be so calm at a time like this?! A quick look to Heero told me that he, too, was the same way. Why weren't they panicking?

"Well, well, well," sneered a very familiar voice that sported an unfamiliar tone. Duo Maxwell stood in the midst of the monsters, quite comfortable. "Look what we've caught in our trap, boys. Two holders and two more sacrifices."

Trowa visibly paled. Well, at least he showed _some_ emotion. Heero was still as passive as if Duo had been asking him to come out and play! Raine was shaking so hard, I thought her jaws would break apart and make all her teeth fall out. 

For some reason, however, I felt as calm as a cucumber. I knew I had the answers now, somehow. They would come to me, possibly at the very last moment. But it was as though I could defeat anyone now, as though I held the answer to life itself. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling; more like grimly satisfactory.

"Get 'em," Duo said coldly. I knew this was no longer Duo. His voice was all too cold, all too lacking in emotion and pride to be the happy-go-lucky braided boy he had once been. Wait a minute...where was his braid?! 

Before I could inquire on such, however, two of the huge creatures grabbed Heero and me about the waist, taking us in one direction, and Trowa and Raine were headed in another. I had a bad feeling I wouldn't be seeing them until it was almost too late. Duo followed the monsters who were carrying Heero and myself, riding on one of them as though it were some kind of great horse.

The sight of Duo astride the monsters, using them as his own personal slaves, was too much. I had been taught long ago that no matter how ugly a thing is, it's always got something good going for it. No matter what. 

"The Yin-Yang," I whispered to myself. "The good is always mixed into the evil." Maybe it was true for demons too. I hoped so. But who was I kidding? 

~~~

"To exorcise _these_ type of demons, you must have a Holder of Power play music while another sings," Shin explained carefully to the dumbstruck group. "In other words, either Siri or Heero have to play a musical instrument while one of them sings."

Blinks.

"But neither of them even _have_ an instrument, and I doubt Heero can sing," said the newly-arrived Raine. She and Trowa had been dropped, rather roughly, into the dungeon not too long ago.

"True..." Toraneko groaned. "This is _hopeless_! Unless one of those two can come up with an instrument they can play and the other can sing, we're basically done for!"

"And how would we tell them anyway?" Telex said sarcastically. "Cups and a string?"

"Actually..."  
"I wasn't serious, Shin," Telex snapped.  
"No, I realize that," Shin explained. "But maybe I can establish a mental link to them. Who was closest to Heero?"

"Siri," Tari answered glumly.

"After her," Shin waved his hand. 

"Duo," Wufei rolled his eyes.

"After him?"

"Quatre."  
"This isn't our day," Telex moaned. "We might as well just break on outta here and go tell them!"

"We can't do that, Telex," Toraneko told her. "We have to try. It isn't just our lives at stake here. It's Siri and Heero and our families. And strangers, billions of them, people we don't even know, who don't even know they're counting on us now." 

"TN's right, you guys," Tari nodded. "Are we gonna save them or not? I may not have always gotten along with my mom, but I don't want her dead, either. And I'm still waiting for Jim. I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna give it my all."

"No way I'm losing the friends I've got left," Telex stood up. "I'm with you guys."

Raine looked around. "I've got a lot of family down there who are worried sick about me. I can't let them down. Can't let you guys down. I'm in."

Four hands shot into the center of their usual five.

"For everyone."

~~~

Heero and I were dumped roughly, side by side, in a small, white on white room. Seriously, all white. White walls, white floors, two white bunks, white sheets, white _everything_. Duo stuck his face against thick glass that exposed the small room to the outside.

"We'll figure out what your power is, children," he mocked us. "And then we'll use it to our own advantage."  
"There's no way you're making me do nothing!" I shouted at him, kicking the glass as hard as I could, producing dissatisfying effects. Ouch, did that hurt.

"We won't have to," Duo chuckled. "We'll just get a couple of good men to inhabit your bodies for the times we need them." He turned and left, the cold laughter reverberating off of the long hallway, back into the room where Heero was preventing me from charging at his retreating back through the glass again.  
"Siri, calm down."  
"I won't calm down, not till I've wiped that stupid grin off his face!"

"Siri, this isn't helping."  
"I don't care! Lemme at him! Lemme _at him_!"

Heero turned me around in his arms and hugged me tightly. The suddenness of it made me stop short.

"Stop, Siri. Please, stop."

"I'm sorry. I-I just-"  
"Shh...I know. But this is not going to help. Are you going to be all right?" I nodded, now embarrassed. What had I been thinking? Or hadn't been thinking. He slowly let me go, as though afraid I'd suddenly charge toward the window again.

"What's wrong, Heero?" I smirked. "Afraid I'm gonna run away?" 

__

Siri? Siri, can you hear me?

"Tari?!" I yelped.  
"Tari?" Heero repeated. "Are you sure you're okay?" 

__

Yeah, it's me. I'll explain in a minute, if we have time. First I gotta tell ya how to exorcise the demons. Do you happen to have an instrument of any kind on you?

"An instrument?"

"An instrument?" Heero once again repeated.

__

Yeah, a musical instrument.

"I don't think--Yeah! I do! A harmonica!"

"A harmonica?"  
_A harmonica?_

"Is there an echo here? Yes, a harmonica!"

__

Okay. Can you play_ the harmonica?_

"Sort of."

__

Is Heero there?

"Yeah, Heero's here."

"What about me?"

__

Ask him if he can sing.

I blanched. Heero? Sing? I'd never heard such a preposterous question. But if it helps...

"Heero, can you sing?"

He blinked in surprise. "Sing?"  
"Yeah, sing."

"I've never tried before," a slight pink flush tinted his cheeks. It was very, very slight, so much that I would not have seen it had I not been expecting it. 

"Uh...Tari, he says he's never tried before."

Silence.

__

All right, ask him if he _can play the harmonica._

"Can you play the harmonica?"

"Yes," he answered, still in surprise. Well, as much as the Perfect Soldier could get, anyway.

"He can."

__

All right, here's the deal. The only way to exorcise these demons is if the holders of power sing and play a musical instrument together. Pick a song and stick with it.

"How are you talking to me?"

__

Shin formed some kind of link between our minds. Something about being closest, other than love.

"Oh."  
_I gotta go. Start getting together a game plan, 'cause Duo, Releena, and Quatre are coming the get us. I think Waterweed and Caprice are coming to get you guys. Be careful, Siri. See ya soon._

"Yeah. See ya."

I explained things to Heero as best I could. How do I say this? To tell you how he reacted? Um...it's not easy to tell you that Heero was very, very surprised. I'll just leave the rest up to your imagination.

After Heero overcame his haze, or looked like it, anyway, I asked him how we were going to put what Tari said into action.

"Hn."

"Heero," I whined loudly. "Don't do that!"

"Hn."  
"How are we gonna do this?" I moaned, sinking into the lower bunk of the tiny room.

"I don't know." He was calm. Why was he calm? The proper thing to do at a time like this was to _panic_! We had no plan, and our only weapon was something I hadn't done in years, and probably he hadn't either. 

"I thought you were the great leader of this team," I rumbled out, not even paying attention to what I was saying. "That you knew all the answers."  
"I don't," he said simply. "Siri, listen, no one has _all_ the answers. Not even Shin."

"Well...I don't..." I stuttered. "What...you mean...gah!"

"We should pick a song."

"Why's that?" I asked, sighing. "It's not like it'll do us much good."

"I have an idea. What song?"

I thought for a moment. I thought good and hard. And came up with the perfect song. The perfect song for the Perfect Soldier and the Imperfect Loner.

"_Pay Attention_."

"To what?"

***


	12. Conclusion

"Get your friggin' hands off of me!" Telex yelled, fighting with all that was within her. The monsters had reappeared once again along with Duo. She and Tari matched wits and strengths, but neither were a match for the repulsive vermin which held them. Toraneko, Raine, Trowa, Wufei, Une, and Shin simply allowed themselves to be carried, glowering in their own way at the demonic swine which held them in their slimy grasps. The worst thing for Wufei was the fact that, not only was this a complete injustice on his pride, but they had also struck the blow of taking his katanas.

Confiscating Wufei's katanas made for a very grumpy Wufei.

"You humans are so gullible and trustworthy," Duo was saying off-handedly, his shortened hair hanging in his eyes. He seemed more Heero-like than anyone really wanted to think about. "To think, we were there almost the entire time, and you didn't suspect a thing! It is quite amusing."

"What will be amusing is what Maxwell's gonna do to you once he comes to his senses," Wufei snarled, no longer capable of taking the incessant talking of a demon who was far more annoying than the original Maxwell had ever been.

"Oh, him," the demon within Duo gave a haughty laugh. "He's been fighting me this whole time. 'Leave my friends alone, they never done nothing to you'. 'Siri's gonna beat you, wait and see!' Ha! I'd like to see that stupid wretch of a girl even try to defeat Lady Kykyo." (AN-That's pronounced key-key-yo, the o long.)

"Why you...Siri _will_ defeat you!" Tari shouted. "How dare you, you stupid son-"  
"Tari!" Toraneko stopped her.

"You should let your friend curse me all she likes," Duo smirked coldly. "She'll miss not doing it before she becomes a ghost."

__

Ghost? ran through many minds. Only Shin knew what he spoke of.

The group entered a large, circular room. Instead of the typical candles and darkness, as many of them had been expecting, it was completely white. White everywhere. White is very, very intimidating when it is the only color in use. (AN-Why else do asylums and hospitals use it excessively?)

In the center of the room was the only things that _weren't_ white. Twelve tall benches spread across the room, with two more before them all, in right angles to the others (straight up and down). The dozen laid perfectly flat. The twelve benches were the color of molten lead, with splashes of other unknown materials, with shackles the color of rusted iron. The shackles were placed where most thought would be the ankles, knees, wrists, elbows, and upper torso.

A sudden extreme bout of nausea passed through the group as they figured out what most of the unknown material were. Blood. Dry, sickeningly dark red blood.

"Well," chuckled a voice most in the room knew only too well. "It seems we have our guests in order. Caprice, Waterweed, Yasha, strap them to their benches."

Raine swooned and fainted dead away, right into Trowa's arms.  
"And be sure you get the right couples, Remram," Releena, now known to be inhabited by the demon Kykyo, said, as though telling him not to forget his lunch for work that day. "Wouldn't want to destroy ourselves, would we?"

"No, milady."

"The blond and bang-boy there are obviously together," Kykyo (Releena) stated, gesturing to the fainted Raine and Trowa, holding her while glowering at the demons. "And I know that one there's alone." She pointed to Tari.

"Yes, mistress," Waterweed, Yasha (Quatre), and Caprice said as one. Tari was placed, rather roughly, on the first table. Yasha (Quatre) ran some sort of scanner over her, then handed it to Waterweed without another word.

"She's ready," Yasha said, pointing to the struggling Tari. The bonds that held her were too tight, but she was not about the give up. 

"Him, too," Waterweed said.

A red light went off on Raine.

"D103, hold this one," Caprice barked to one of the monsters.

And down the line. The red light had flashed on Telex, Raine, Toraneko, and Wufei. Une was strapped to the table next to the table meant for Raine. A small assembly line had formed. One of certain death.

~~~

"And how are we supposed to get out of here? Where are we supposed to go?" I rambled on to Heero, once I'd taught him the chorus and first and second verses to _Pay Attention_.

"Duo has always been very addle-brained," Heero said calmly. "So is his demon." He took out the gun he had attempted to give me, brandished it a moment, the shot the glass, the silencer stopping any noise from the gun itself.

The glass shattered, falling to the ground with a crash.

"This way."

"How do you know?" I climbed out of the room carefully. 

"Intuition. I have infiltrated many bases."

"Those were _Oz_ bases and Romefeller-"

"Do you trust me, Siri?"  
"Of course I trust you, Heero," I said, cocking my head a little as I raced after him.

"Then listen to me. Once we get into that room, I'm going to pull out that harmonica and start playing. You've got to start singing, too, no matter what is going on. The others have already been strapped to the tables."

Tables? Oh, no...that meant...

"Heero? You can count on me."

~~~

"And she should go there when you are finished," Kykyo continued, pointing. Suddenly, she screeched higher than Telex would have liked. Sweet music had begun to play, sending every last one of the demons to collapse in pain to the floor.

__

If you wanna be somebody

If you wanna go somewhere

You better wake up and

Pay Attention...

"S-Siri..." Tari managed to smile, even though there was a long knife at the base of her neck, where Rem had begun to kill her. He had been cut short, just in time, by the sound of Heero's harmonica and my alto, and probably flat, voice.

Tiny, furry little creatures began to spring from their hosts' mouths. Like little dragons with tufts of fur running down their backs. The creatures began to change shape the minute they had exited the bodies of Waterweed, Caprice, Quatre, Duo, Releena, and Rem. 

The swine that were so tiny began to grow.

"Siri, get me out of these binds! Just don't stop singing!" Shin shouted to me. I nodded, only faltering a second.

In place of the original six furry dragons, there was now: An ocelot, a dragon, a snake, a tiger, a grizzly bear, and a peregrine falcon. And they were one unhappy bunch. I was still singing, too. Do you have any idea how hard it is to hurry to untie people, watch a group of demons become animals, and sing, all at the same time?

"You can stop singing now," Shin smirked. "And get up your strength to fight." I stopped. Heero, too, came over and began to help me get everyone free.

"Here, Wufei, catch," I shouted, tossing his katanas to him. Growling like the animals before me, I faltered when Wufei and Heero both asked the unthinkable, at least for me.

"Siri, get the others. Don't let them get possessed again."

"What-"  
"Just do it!"

I did what I was told, dragging Raine, Duo, Quatre, and the others beyond the table.

"Now where did that darned snake go?" Wufei cursed. I raced to join them and found myself being quite useful in the battle against the dragon (it was a miniature). Shin had already managed to contain the bear and falcon, along with the ocelot and tiger, to which I think we were all grateful.

A screech behind us alerted me to the others. My mother and Tari were fighting off the snake, alone. Heero tossed me his gun and continued to fight the dragon alone. Torn between which battle to take, I took the road less traveled and raced to defend my mother and friend.

"Siri, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tari shouted in alarm. "We can handle the snake, go back and-"  
She was cut off by a loud bang as I shot the snake in the general vicinity of the heart, or at least where I thought it might be. Instead of keeling over dead, however, it loomed over me, black and frightening. I shot again and again, but missed my mark.

The snake dove.

Visions of my life passed over my eyes.

Nothing seemed real.

Everything was fuzzy.

Pain in my arm.

Drifting through space.

Drifting through time.

Nothing left for me.

No one but my friends.

None but those who cared for me.

Those I cared for.  
I heard cries all around me, calling out my name. Felt the gun be taken from my hand. But everything was so far away. Why was everything spinning? Round and round the world went about my head, like I was the sun and everything else, the planets and comets and asteroids and moons.

No light lit the world, no light fell into my eyes. Darkness, pure black, sinking, forever into the depths of darkness. Pain began to ebb away and suddenly I saw light. It was very tiny at first, quite like a tunnel.

I gave a raw laugh. The light at the end of the tunnel. No pain. No more tears. So this was what it was truly like to do. To suddenly end ones life. But had I truly reached the end of the line?

"No, no, no, this simply won't do," said a sprightly voice. Color began to seep back into my eyes. I saw the battle, still raging below me. Tari and my mother were crying. Heero was...Heero was crying too. Tears streamed down his usually-emotionless face, he was hysterical as he beat the dragon to a bloody pulp. The other creatures had been dispersed finally by the others only a few moments before, but Heero continued fighting, even though his opponent was nearing unconsciousness.

Then, I saw it.

My body, lying limp, tiny in Tari's arms. My mother was pulling my hair gently out of my face, but that wasn't possible. I was up here. How could I be down there and up here at the same time? Was that possible?

My face was so pale, it was like the blood had drained too quickly. Only I soon figured out that there was none. It struck me like lightning, something I had overheard Duo telling the others before Heero and I fully reached the door of the hall.

Ghost.  
"If I'm down there, and yet I'm up here, and that snake bit me...that must mean I've turned into a ghost. Hn. Strange."

"Not at all, for what you've been through." 

"You're right, but--Hey, who are you? Where are you?"

"Right here, silly head," said the voice again. "Didn't think I'd just leave you be, did you?"

"If I'm a ghost, how can you see me? And who are you?"

"I'm Botan, the Pilot of the River Styx."  
"Oh, so you're the Grim Reaper," I blinked at her. "But how is that so? You're too pretty to be grim."  
"You should talk, Loner," she smiled brightly. "You know, for a loner, you sure had a lot of friends." She watched the others. "And we weren't really expecting this."  
"What do you mean, you weren't expecting this?" I asked incredulously.

"I won't go into it," she sighed. "I've got enough trouble trying to take care of Yusuke. Which is why Koenma has graciously decided to give you your life back. And, being as that you are the Holder of Power, that is quite acceptable. Later!" Suddenly, she was gone and I was sinking. 

Sinking back into the light. 

Back into myself.

Back to the living.

"S-Siri?" my mother whispered to me carefully. "Honey, are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," I stuttered. "F-Fine. N-Never better."

***

Duo, Quatre and the others soon began to awaken. Shin said something about heading back to Spirit World, but it was all a blur to me. Quatre wouldn't stop apologizing, and I was being hugged very tightly by Duo, Tari, and Raine. Only upon my request to be let go did they let me breath.

Releena was still quiet. 

"One of the demons escaped!" Shin shouted suddenly. Another blur of movement, something that I wasn't paying much attention to. Unconsciously, I raised my wrist, upon which the bracelet still resided, and a bright flash of blue light shot from my hand, completely destroying all traces of Releena Peacecraft and the demon Lady Kykyo. 

Shock ran through the entire group. I gave a small smirk, knowing that I had done what was once thought unthinkable for me.

"The power of perception, learning, and spiritual gathering," I grasped my now-normal hand into a tight fist. "Is put to rest. For now."

My father, who had as of yet to awaken, groaned aloud. My breath caught in my throat as I stared down at him. I had lived with him for twelve years in total and utter fear. Would he still be his same self, the one who had been so abusive and trying, or was he really the way he'd been?

Waterweed, it turned out, woke up first. He looked around, dazed and confused. Then his eyes fell on me.

"M-M-M-Miss S-Sari!" He seemed at a lost for any words at all, simply sat there, tears streaming down his face. 

"Mr. Waterweed," I nodded gently.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" he finally burst out. "I'm free at last! Free of that demon's clutches!" He closed his eyes and fell at my feet, sobbing deeply for a man of his stature. Boys do cry. Heero had proved that. Speaking of him...where was he?

Like the missing angel I had once thought him to be, he sat on one of the blood-stained benches, indifferent to anything and everyone. Duo was busy apologizing like crazy, as was Quatre, who looked very green in the face.

A groan directed all of our attention to my father. Only Heero, myself, and probably my mother knew what he had done to me. My mother stood beside me, biting her lip hopefully. Probably hoping that the man she had married would come back out of the shell where a demon had once been.

Heero looked quite tense. It was obvious he wasn't pleased at all with this man, or his ways, and was waiting with tense muscles for his awakening. I caught his eye and shook my head carefully. He gave a single curt nod and relaxed. Slightly. At least now his knuckles were only a little pink instead of ghostly white. 

Ravioli Vince Caprice, or whatever his true name was, awoke with a slight shake of his head. He looked up at the crowd around him and his eyes landed on me.

"You little witch!" he yelled. "I was _this close_ from getting to be the first-"

He was cut off rather abruptly by a gunshot. Heero stood on the table, his hands shaking slightly as he slowly put the gun down. His hand finally placed the handgun into his pocket and he leapt from the table, landing beside me.

"Are there no more prisoners here?" he asked Shin professionally. The white-haired god shook his head.

"Then leave. Siri and I will destroy this place. We will rejoin you in a few moments."

"But, Heero, man, I can-"  
"No, Duo. Just Siri."

The others nodded very slowly and Shin opened a black portal.

"If you two are not back at the mansion in twenty minutes, I'm coming back to help," Shin told us firmly. "I'm not sure what else is here, besides those monsters."  
"Don't worry. We'll be back long before then," I nodded to Shin. It's going to be hard to smile anymore. Not anymore, now that I know I've killed someone. Killed someone in self-defense, yes, but I had still committed murder.

The portal closed.

"How?"

"What?" Heero was very good at asking questions without being very clear.

"How did you come back? You were dead."

"I...don't know, really," I shrugged.

"I can answer that one." It was that Botan lady. "Koenma decided to let her live. She died nobly, in the face of danger, never having truly known she had been cared for all of her life. You have been given a great chance, Siri. Live your life. In the words of Siri Capri, Sayonara!"

"Heero? Remind me of that next time I think about killing myself. I don't want to see her for a long time."

"I will. Every day."

"How?"

He didn't answer verbally. His lips closed over mine faster than I could have truly expected it. Heero gave me a smile that I will always remember. A smile as wide as Duo's, but with every ounce of tenderness and heart that only a soul mate can truly give. 

"Ready?" he asked after a moment.

"Let's get this party started," I grinned. He laughed, a sweet bass laugh that I will recall each and every day of my life. And from the looks of it, that would be a very long time.

***

When we stepped through the portal five minutes later, everyone was waiting for us. It seemed to me that there is only one way to truly end this story of my life. It will never be "happily ever after", because you can never truly be happy all the time.

But Heero and I lived with joy in our hearts, knowing that we had found our true soul mates despite every reconcilable odd against us. It's a month after the attacks on our lives and our worlds.

Shin brought Toraneko back to Spirit World with him, and now she's a Spirit Detective, with him for a partner. It's obvious they are very much in love, but neither like to admit it. Their first case is underway, to find some lost artifact that someone stole.

Trowa and Raine, unsurprisingly, have started to date. As I often quote from Tremors II, "...you spend a few days almost getting killed, and you start to really think about how you should date more often..." I think it'll be maybe two or three years before they get married, though. That's just how quiet the two of them are. 

Well, when they aren't surrounded by friends, anyway.

Jim came back a few days ago with a broken leg. He proposed that very same day. I should know; Duo dragged me behind a bush to wait for them and we caught a picture of the guy down on his knees.

It turned out _that_ was the bang that Tari had heard.

Telex and Wufei started working together on the same Preventers team. Telex's birthday is coming up, and Wufei has asked me, very nervously, too, what Telex's favorite gem was. He's gonna ask her to marry him on her birthday. Isn't that sweet?

Poor Duo. He's still distraught about his missing braid, and is very glad that the demon responsible had been punished, and very heavily, too. Quatre has offered to pay for Tari and Jim's wedding, which was very nice of him. Poor guy is still pretty spooked.

As for Heero and me? We're taking it slow. I want to know everything about Heero, before I'll agree to anything beyond the occasional kiss. (^-~) And I suppose he wants the same from me. Mom offered to let me move in with her, but I declined. I stayed with the boys at Releena's mansion. Things were often pretty hectic, yet I loved every minute of it. 

At least Wufei couldn't chop off Duo's braid anymore. 

Duo let me even out his hair, which was quite jagged. He looks a little better, but he still wishes he could destroy the demons who did it to him all over again. 

I suppose I should continue, telling you how many children we all had, when Heero and I were finally married, if Duo and Quatre ever met anyone, but I won't. You can guess all that out on your own, I guess. You can stretch the truths I have told you, you can tell me some of the things I'd done were mistakes that I needed to fix, but it'll fall on deaf ears.

It is said that an ounce of inspiration is worth a ton of advice. I give you every inspiring thought I've ever had. I am the Holder of Power, the power being perception, learning, and spiritual gathering. However, all the advice I can give anyone, and anyone can give to me, is simply thus; Choose your own destiny.

Oh, yes, and one more thing. Frank Ichinoku, the boy who had helped Rem transport drugs, was taken to the asylum today. He was screaming something about penguins and chickens, and how they should never mate.

***

That last part was an inside joke. Email me if you wanna get it fully. You may not want to, though. I would like to truly thank my five friends for participating in this story. And to apologize if I implied anything that wasn't true. Tari, Raine, Telex, Toraneko, Siri, you guys are the best, and I hope that we will always be friends. 

For everyone. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.


End file.
